The Development of Cobalt-Based Catalysts for Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis is an important route to utilize fossil resources such as coal and natural gas The key point is the control of catalyst selectivity, that is how to suppress methane formation and to improve distillate selectivity In the past decade, Co-based F-T synthesis catalysts and related scale-up were investigated in our laboratory, including the relationship between cobalt dispersion, reducibility, and methane formation along with the hydrophobic modification and the core-shell structure It was found that CH4 selectivity is correlated with the reducibility of cobalt, which depends on its particle size Based on these, Co-based catalysts have been developed for the scale-up with the feature of low CH4 and high heavy hydrocarbon selectivity Catalyst I is now subjected to the demo-plant of over 5 000 t/a, and Catalyst II (with much low CH4 selectivity) has operated for more than 8 000 h