De Novo Design of Nanostructured Iron-Cobalt Fischer-Tropsch Catalysts

摘要

Sustainable energy production (and consumption) is one of the key challenges of the 21st century. Energy demand is increasing steadily in the EU and in North America, and even faster in emerging economies, such as China and Brazil. Major oil companies are considering alternative feedstocks, such as natural gas and biomass, promoting low-CO2-foot-print technologies. These developments are reviving the interest in the century-old Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS). Indeed, the last seven decades show a remarkably strong correlation between crude oil prices and research on FTS. Currently, FTS technology is used for the production of ultraclean synthetic fuels in South Africa, Qatar, Malaysia, and China, starting from coal (so-called coal-to-liquids, or CTL) or natural gas (gas-to-liquids, GTL).