The Effects of Water and CO2 on the Reaction Kinetics in the Iron-Based Low-Temperature Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis: A Literature Review

A review of kinetic models for the iron-based Fischer-Tropsch synthesis revealed some important areas of progress, namely (a) a transition from rate equations with a first order denominator (consistent with an Eley-Rideal type mechanism) to Langmuir-Hinshelwood expressions with a second order inhibition term; (b) whereas kinetic models originally specified full coverage of the catalytic surface, later models found the influence of vacant sites to be important; (c) whereas water or CO2 was traditionally always included in the FT rate equations, the most recent lumped kinetic models do not account for any influence of water. It was further concluded that the perceived inhibiting influence of water on the FT rate may have been an indirect effect via the water-gas-shift reaction that changed the hydrogen and CO partial pressures.