Nanostructured Catalyst for Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis

Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is a heterogeneous catalytic process for the production of fuels or chemicals from synthesis gas (CO + H₂), which can be derived from nonpetroleum feedstocks such as natural gas, coal, or biomass. Co, Ru, Fe and Ni are all active in FTS, but only cheaper Fe and Co based catalysts are used in industry because the price of Ru is relatively high. However, the industrial Fe‐ and Co‐ based FTS catalysts normally work at a relatively high temperature range of 493—623 K in order to get a reasonable space time yield. Moreover, the product selectivity of FTS is governed by the law of polymerization, i.e., a so‐called Anderson‐Schulz‐Flory distribution holds, which restricts its industrial application. In this account, we highlight some of our progress toward the design/fabrication of nanostructured Fe, Co and Ru catalysts to improve FTS activity at the low temperature and to change the product selectivity and confine the product distribution into a certain range.     

The Optimally Performing Fischer–Tropsch Catalyst

Microkinetics simulations are presented based on DFT‐determined elementary reaction steps of the Fischer–Tropsch (FT) reaction. The formation of long‐chain hydrocarbons occurs on stepped Ru surfaces with CH as the inserting monomer, whereas planar Ru only produces methane because of slow CO activation. By varying the metal–carbon and metal–oxygen interaction energy, three reactivity regimes are identified with rates being controlled by CO dissociation, chain‐growth termination, or water removal. Predicted surface coverages are dominated by CO, C, or O, respectively. Optimum FT performance occurs at the interphase of the regimes of limited CO dissociation and chain‐growth termination. Current FT catalysts are suboptimal, as they are limited by CO activation and/or O removal.     

Capturing the Genesis of an Active Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis Catalyst with Operando X‐ray Nanospectroscopy

A state‐of‐the‐art operando spectroscopic technique is applied to Co/TiO₂ catalysts, which account for nearly half of the world's transportation fuels produced by Fischer–Tropsch catalysis. This allows determination of, at a spatial resolution of approximately 50 nm, the interdependence of formed hydrocarbon species in the inorganic catalyst. Observed trends show intra‐ and interparticular heterogeneities previously believed not to occur in particles under 200 μm. These heterogeneities are strongly dependent on changes in H₂/CO ratio, but also on changes thereby induced on the Co and Ti valence states. We have captured the genesis of an active FTS particle over its propagation to steady‐state operation, in which microgradients lead to the gradual saturation of the Co/TiO₂ catalyst surface with long chain hydrocarbons (i.e., organic film formation).     

Effects of titanium silicalite and TiO2 nanocomposites on supported Co‐based catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis

Titanium silicalite (TS) and TiO₂ nanocomposites were prepared by mixing TS and TiO₂ with different ratios in ethanol. They were impregnated with 15 wt% Co loading to afford Co‐based catalysts. Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) performance of these TS–TiO₂ nanocomposite‐supported Co‐based catalysts was studied in a fixed‐bed tubular reactor. The results reveal that the Co/TS–TiO₂ catalysts have better catalytic performance than Co/TS or Co/TiO₂ each with a single support, showing the synergistic effect of the binary TS–TiO₂ support. Among the TS–TiO₂ nanocomposite‐supported Co‐based catalysts, Co/TS–TiO₂‐1 presents the highest activity. These catalysts were characterized using N₂ adsorption–desorption measurements, X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, H₂ temperature‐programmed reduction, H₂ temperature‐programmed desorption and transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the position of the active component has a significant effect on the catalytic activity. In the TS–TiO₂ nanocomposites, cobalt oxides located at the new pores developed between TS and TiO₂ can exhibit better catalytic activity. Also, a positive relationship is observed between Co dispersion and FTS catalytic performance for all catalysts. The catalytic activity is improved on increasing the dispersion of Co.     

Gas‐Phase Thermodynamics as a Validation of Computational Catalysis on Surfaces: A Case Study of Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis

Density functional theory has become a valuable tool to study surface catalysis. However, due to the scarcity of clean and reliable experimental data on surfaces, the theoretical methods employed to explore heterogeneous catalytic mechanisms are usually less well validated than those for gas‐phase reactions. We argue herein that gas‐phase reactions and the corresponding surface reactions are related through the Born–Haber cycle and computational catalysis on surfaces will be less meaningful if gas‐phase behavior cannot first be suitably determined. In this contribution, we have constructed a set of gas‐phase reactions relevant to the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis as a case study. With this set, we have tested the validity of the widely used PBE and B3LYP functionals and found that neither of them are capable of describing all kinds of gas‐phase reactions properly, such that some surface reactions may be biased falsely against the others. Significantly, XYG3, which is a double‐hybrid functional that includes Hartree–Fock‐like exchange and many‐body perturbation correlation effects, presents a significant improvement for all of the gas‐phase reactions, holding promise for further development for surface catalysis.     

Functionalized Natural Carbon‐Supported Nanoparticles as Excellent Catalysts for Hydrocarbon Production

We report a one‐pot and eco‐friendly synthesis of carbon‐supported cobalt nanoparticles, achieved by carbonization of waste biomass (rice bran) with a cobalt source. The functionalized biomass provides carbon microspheres as excellent catalyst support, forming a unique interface between hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups. The latter, involving hydroxyl and amino groups, can catch much more active cobalt nanoparticles on surface for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis than chemical carbon. The loading amount of cobalt on the final catalyst is much higher than that prepared with a chemical carbon source, such as glucose. The proposed concept of using a functionalized natural carbon source shows great potential compared with conventional carbon sources, and will be meaningful for other fields concerning carbon support, such as heterogeneous catalysis or electrochemical fields.     

Ab‐Initio calculations of the CO adsorption and dissociation on substitutional Fe–Cu surface alloys relevant to Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis: bcc‐(Cu)Fe(100) and fcc‐(Fe)Cu(100)

Direct CO dissociation is seen the main path of the first step in the Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) on the reactive iron surfaces. Cu/Fe alloy film is addressed with various applications over face‐centered‐cubic (fcc)‐Cu and body‐centered‐cubic (bcc)‐Fe in the FTS, i.e. preventing iron carbide formation (through direct CO dissociation) by moderating the surface reactivity and facilitating the reduction of iron surfaces, respectively. In this study by density functional theory, the stable configurations of CO molecule on various Cu/Fe alloys over fcc‐Cu(100) and bcc‐Fe(100) surfaces with different CO coverage (25% and 50%) have been evaluated. Our results showed that the ensemble effect plays a fundamental role to CO adsorption energy on the surface alloys over bcc‐Fe(100); on the other hand, the ligand effect determines the CO stability on the fcc‐Cu(100) surface alloys. CO dissociation barrier was also calculated on the surface alloys that showed although the CO dissociation process is thermodynamically possible on the more reactive surface alloys, but according to their high barrier, CO dissociation does not occur directly on these surfaces. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of support and cobalt precursors on the activity of Co/AlPO4 catalysts in Fischer–Tropsch synthesis

Cobalt supported on amorphous aluminum phosphate (Co/AlPO₄) catalysts were prepared by the impregnation method using three different cobalt precursors such as cobalt nitrate, acetate and chloride to elucidate the activity of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. The use of AlPO₄ as a support for cobalt-based catalysts exhibits better catalytic performance during FTS reaction than the corresponding Co/Al₂O₃ catalyst. TPR results also suggest that the reducibility of the catalysts varies with the nature of cobalt precursors employed during the impregnation on AlPO₄ support. The Co/AlPO₄ catalyst prepared from cobalt nitrate shows higher CO conversion and C₈+ selectivity than the others due to the facile formation of homogeneous cobalt particles with proper electronic characters and high reducibility. Interestingly, all Co/AlPO₄ showed a growth of filamentous carbon initiated from the large mobile cobalt particles during the reaction. The differences in catalytic properties of Co/AlPO₄ are mainly attributed to the cobalt particle size, reducibility with different electronic states of metallic cobalt, pore diameter of AlPO₄ and formation of filamentous carbon.     

Hydrocracking of Heavy Fischer–Tropsch Wax Distillation Residues and Its Blends with Vacuum Gas Oil Using Phonolite-Based Catalysts

The Fischer–Tropsch heavy fraction is a potential feedstock for transport-fuels production through co-processing with fossil fuel fraction. However, there is still the need of developing new and green catalytic materials able to process this feedstock into valuable outputs. The present work studies the co-hydrocracking of the Fisher–Tropsch heavy fraction (FT-res.) with vacuum gas oil (VGO) at different ratios (FT-res. 9:1 VGO, FT-res. 7:3 VGO, and FT-res. 5:5 VGO) using phonolite-based catalysts (5Ni10W/Ph, 5Ni10Mo/Ph, and 5Co10Mo/Ph), paying attention to the overall conversion, yield, and selectivity of the products and properties. The co-processing experiments were carried out in an autoclave reactor at 450 °C, under 50 bars for 1 and 2 h. The phonolite-based catalysts were active in the hydrocracking of FT-res.:VGO mixtures, presenting different yields to gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel fractions, depending on the time of reaction and type of catalyst. Our results enable us to define the most suitable metal transition composition for the phonolite-based support as a hydrocracking catalyst.     

Revisiting alternative pathways in the Fischer–Tropsch process: Accurate density functional theory calculations on “magic” Ru12 clusters

Models of the Fischer–Tropsch reaction typically focus on two proposed mechanisms for the initial carbon monoxide dissociation: unassisted dissociation (carbide mechanism), and hydrogen‐assisted dissociation via an adsorbed oxymethylidene (HCO*) intermediate. Much evidence for hydrogen‐assisted dissociation comes from density functional theory calculations modeling ruthenium nanoparticle catalysts as infinite, periodic metal slabs. However, the generalized gradient approximations (GGAs) used in these calculations can make significant errors in reaction barrier heights. How these errors affect the predicted selectivity to unassisted vs. hydrogen‐assisted dissociation is not well understood. We address the problem by considering a different regime, applying GGA and beyond‐GGA approximations to CO dissociation on a “magic” nonmagnetic Ru₁₂ cluster modeling supported nanoparticle catalysts. Both approximations concur that hydrogen‐assisted dissociation is facile on this cluster, providing additional support for its potential role in real catalysts.     

Kinetic modeling of Fischer–Tropsch-to-olefins process via advanced optimization

The reaction kinetics of a Fischer–Tropsch (FT) process to produce lower olefins was modeled utilizing the experimental data produced using an in-house synthesized iron-based catalyst. Along with FT chain growth reaction that is assumed to follow alkyl mechanism, water–gas shift reaction was also taken into consideration due to its significance. Not only the rate constants but also apparent activation energies were obtained via an integrated approach utilizing multiobjective and constrained nonlinear minimization methods in order to define a model valid at a temperature range instead of a single point. The adaption of a hybrid optimization method utilizing both population- and individual-based techniques enhanced prediction accuracy compared with the case where only multiobjective genetic algorithm is used. Thanks to the developed model, the effect of process parameters on product distribution was investigated. Finally, the kinetic model was compared with Anderson–Schulz–Flory model and the deviations observed were discussed.     

CO Hydrogenation on Cobalt‐Based Catalysts: Tin Poisoning Unravels CO in Hollow Sites as a Main Surface Intermediate

Site poisoning is a powerful method to unravel the nature of active sites or reaction intermediates. The nature of the intermediates involved in the hydrogenation of CO was unraveled by poisoning alumina‐supported cobalt catalysts with various concentrations of tin. The rate of formation of the main reaction products (methane and propylene) was found to be proportional to the concentration of multi‐bonded CO, likely located in hollow sites. The specific rate of decomposition of these species was sufficient to account for the formation of the main products. These hollow‐CO are proposed to be main reaction intermediates in the hydrogenation of CO under the reaction conditions used here, while linear CO are mostly spectators.