Alumina Coated Silica Nanosprings (NS) Support Based Cobalt Catalysts for Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuel Production From Syngas.

Abdulbaset Alayat,David N Mcllroy,Armando G Mcdonald,Farid Sotoudehniakarani,Elena Echeverria

doi:10.3390/ma12111810

Abdulbaset Alayat, David N Mcllroy + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12111810

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Journal: Materials	Publication Date: Jun 4, 2019
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Idaho, Oklahoma State University

Abstract

The effects of Al2O3 coating on the performance of silica nanospring (NS) supported Co catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) were evaluated in a quartz fixed-bed microreactor. The Co/NS-Al2O3 catalysts were synthesized by coating the Co/NS and NS with Al2O3 by an alkoxide-based sol-gel method (NS-Al-A and NS-Al-B, respectively) and then by decorating them with Co. Co deposition was via an impregnation method. Catalysts were characterized before the FTS reaction by the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, temperature programmed reduction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetric analysis in order to find correlations between physico-chemical properties of catalysts and catalytic performance. The products of the FTS were trapped and analyzed by GC-TCD and GC-MS to determine the CO conversion and reaction selectivity. The Al2O3 coated NS catalyst had a significant affect in FTS activity and selectivity in both Co/NS-Al2O3 catalysts. A high CO conversion (82.4%) and Σ > C6 (86.3%) yield were obtained on the Co/NS-Al-B catalyst, whereas the CO conversion was 62.8% and Σ > C6 was 58.5% on the Co/NS-Al-A catalyst under the same FTS experimental condition. The Co/NS-Al-A catalyst yielded the aromatic selectivity of 10.2% and oxygenated compounds.

Highlights

Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) has been recognized as a promising route to produce environmentally clean liquid fuels and industrial chemicals from renewable feed-stocks [1]
Four different catalysts (Co-NS, Co/Al2 O3, Co-NS-Al-A and Co-NS-Al-B catalysts) were prepared in order to examine the effect of the addition of alumina to the NS supports for FTS
transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs of prepared silica NS are shown in Supplementary Figure S1

Summary

Introduction

Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) has been recognized as a promising route to produce environmentally clean liquid fuels and industrial chemicals (heavy and light hydrocarbons) from renewable feed-stocks [1]. FTS is a heterogeneous catalyzed polymerization reaction of syngas (mixture of CO and H2 ), which is derived from the gasification of a variety of feed-stocks (natural gas, coal, and biomass), into a wide range of molecular weight hydrocarbon chains. For this reaction, several Group VIII transition metals, such as iron (Fe), cobalt (Co) and ruthenium (Ru), are all active in FTS, but only Fe and Co are used for industrial application because of their high. The FTS efficiency and hydrocarbon product distribution depend on variables, such as catalyst specifications (e.g., nature and composition of the catalyst, promoters, support, etc.) and processes conditions (e.g., reactor type, temperature and reaction pressure, activation and preparation methods, etc.) [1,4].

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