Promising Biosugarcane-Based Carbon Support for High Performance Iron-Based Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis

Abstract

Exploiting new carbon supports with adjustable metal-support interaction and low price is of prime importance to realize the maximum active iron efficiency and industrial-scale application of Fe-based catalysts for Fischer−Tropsch synthesis (FTS). Herein, a simple, tunable and scalable biochar support with 3D hierarchical pore structure, deriving from the sugar cane bagasse, was successfully prepared and first for FTS. The metal-support interaction was precisely controlled by functional groups of the biosugarcane-based carbon material and different iron species sizes introduced by iron loadings. All catalysts synthesized displayed greatly high activities, and the FTY of Fe4/Cbio even reached 1198.9 μmol gFe−1s−1, remaining an excellent stability for 150 h. The superior performance was belong to the unique structure and characteristics of the biosugarcane-based carbon support, which possessed abundant C−O, C=O (η1(O) and η2(C, O)) functional groups, thus endowed the moderate metal-support interaction, high dispersion of active iron species, more active e-Fe2C phase, and most importantly, high proportion of FexC/Fesurf, facilitating the maximum iron efficiency and intrinsic activity of the catalyst.