Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in a tube-wall reactor using cobalt, iron and cobalt-iron bimetallic catalysts: Experimental and modelling studies.

摘要

Tube-Wall Reactor (TWR) is a versatile reactor to study Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis on account of excellent temperature control and negligible pressure drop. In the present work, tube wall reactor surfaces were prepared by plasma-spraying five catalysts, namely, Fe, 75Fe/25Co, 50Fe/50Co, 25Fe/75Co and Co (wt. % basis) and the catalyst surface was characterized in depth by using BET surface area measurements, chemisorption measurements, x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA). Despite the low BET surface areas for 'plasma-sprayed' catalysts, the hydrogen and carbon monoxide uptakes were found to be quite high. XRD studies showed that the various catalyst phases present on the surface were stable up to 350;A mathematical model, developed earlier in our laboratory, was extended to predict the performance of Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis over cobalt and Co-Fe catalysts in a tube-wall reactor. The agreement between model predictions and experimental results was fairly good.;In the literature, studies have been reported on F-T synthesis in a TWR using plasma-sprayed iron catalysts only at low pressures. In the present work, the effect of temperature (250-275