STUDY OF CO HYDROGENATION TO VALUABLE PRODUCTS USING IRON-BASED CATALYST, WITH AND WITHOUT GAMMA-ALUMINA Support PROMOTER

Subject Areas :

Neda  Choodari Milani ¹ (Department of Chemistry, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran)
Yahya  Zamani ² (Gas Research Division, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, Tehran, Iran)
Sahar  Baniyaghoob ³ (Department of Chemistry, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran)
Ali  Nakhaei Pour ⁴ (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran)

Received: 2023-08-27 Accepted : 2024-06-03 Published : 2024-06-20

Keywords: CO hydrogenation, Iron catalyst, Gamma-Alumina Support, Operation condition, Zr promoter, C5+ selectivity,

Abstract :

Promoted and unpromoted iron-based catalysts in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis were prepared by the impregnation method. The composition of the final iron catalysts, regarding to the atomic ratio is as follow 20%Fe/-Al2O3, 20%Fe/5%Cu/3%Zr/-Al2O3. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), hydrogen temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR), and BET techniques. The catalyst activity and product selectivity were studied in a fixed bed reactor under 20 bar of pressure, H2/CO = 1, in the temperature (270, 285, and 300 °C) and GHSV range of (2, 4, and 6 l.h-1.gcat-1). Then, the effect of temperature, GHSV and promoters (Cu and Zr) on the catalyst performance were investigated. Increasing the temperatures and GHSV were change CO conversion and product selectivity. The promoted iron-based catalysts have higher C5+ selectivity than the unpromoted catalyst, while C2-C4 selectivity decreased because of simultaneous use of Cu and Zr for promoting the iron catalyst. The Zr and Cu promoters increased the reduction rate of Fe2O3 by providing H2 dissociation sites. The unpromoted and promoted catalysts were tested, where the promoted catalyst showed desirable performance.

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