A zirconium modified Co/SiO2 Fischer-Tropsch catalyst prepared by dielectric-barrier discharge plasma

Co/SiO₂ and zirconium promoted Co/Zr/SiO₂ catalysts were prepared using dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD) plasma instead of the conventional thermal calcination method. Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) performances of the catalyst were evaluated in a fixed bed reactor. The results indicated that the catalyst treated by DBD plasma shows the higher FTS activity and yield of heavy hydrocarbons as compared with that treated by the conventional thermal calcination method. Increase in CO conversion was unnoticeable on the Co/SiO₂ catalyst, but significant on the Co/Zr/SiO₂ catalyst, both prepared by DBD plasma. On the other hand, heavy hydrocarbon selectivity and chain growth probability (α value) were enhanced on all the catalysts prepared by the DBD plasma. In order to study the effect of the DBD plasma treatment on the FTS performance, the catalysts were characterized by N₂-physisorption, H₂-temperature programed reduction (H₂-TPR), H₂-temperature-programmed desorption (H₂-TPD) and oxygen titration, transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was proved that, compared with the traditional calcination method, DBD plasma not only could shorten the precursor decomposition time, but also could achieve better cobalt dispersion, smaller Co₃O₄ cluster size and more uniform cobalt distribution. However, cobalt reducibility was hindered to some extent in the Co/SiO₂ catalyst prepared by DBD plasma, while the zirconium additive prevented significantly the decrease in cobalt reducibility and increased cobalt dispersion as well as the FTS performance.