Review of Iron-Based Catalysts for Carbon Dioxide Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

Capturing and utilizing CO2 from the production process is the key to solving the excessive CO2 emission problem. CO2 hydrogenation with green hydrogen to produce olefins is an effective and promising way to utilize CO2 and produce valuable chemicals. The olefins can be produced by CO2 hydrogenation through two routes, i.e., CO2-FTS (carbon dioxide Fischer-Tropsch synthesis) and MeOH (methanol-mediated), among which CO2-FTS has significant advantages over MeOH in practical applications due to its relatively high CO2 conversion and low energy consumption potentials. However, the CO2-FTS faces challenges of difficult CO2 activation and low olefins selectivity. Iron-based catalysts are promising for CO2-FTS due to their dual functionality of catalyzing RWGS and CO-FTS reactions. This review summarizes the recent progress on iron-based catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation via the FTS route and analyzes the catalyst optimization from the perspectives of additives, active sites, and reaction mechanisms. Furthermore, we also outline principles and challenges for rational design of high-performance CO2-FTS catalysts.