Characterization of rapidly and naturally quenched skeletal iron catalysts for FT synthesis

摘要

The slurry phase is a promising system for Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis. Since the liquid medium efficiently removes the heat of reaction so that the steady-state reaction is easily achieved. High catalytic activity is maintained due to removal of waxy products from the catalyst surface by the action of solvent. In addition, CO-rich syngas from coal gasification can be directly used in FT synthesis which may increase the thermal efficiency of the indirect coal liquefaction. One of the important problems to be solved for slurry phase FT is the catalyst attrition and separation from wax residue. Fused iron and Raney iron were found to have high attrition resistance and easy to separate from wax in slurry phase FT synthesis, but their activity is relatively low. Amorphous alloys made by rapid quenching techniques have drawn increasing interest due to their superior mechanical,chemical and magnetic properties compared to the thermodynamically stable crystalline alloys of the same compositions. It is reported that rapidly quenched skeletal Ni catalyst showed higher catalytic activity than Raney Ni in selective hydrogenation of unsaturated organic functional groups.In this paper, Fe50Al50 (by weight) alloys with different quenching rates, rapid quenching (RQ) and natural quenching (NQ) were prepared for FT synthesis. The phase composition of alloys was characterized by XRD. The physical properties, thermal-stability and adsorption properties of skeletal Fe that was prepared by leaching aluminum of the corresponding alloy with aqueous solution of NaOH were also studied by BET, in situ XRD and H2- and CO-TPD. It is found from XRD patterns of the alloys that RQ Fe50Al50 is composed of orthorhombic phase, and NQ Fe50Al50 alloy is mainly composed of monoclinic phase. Meanwhile, diffraction peaks of the RQ alloy are seriously broadened. After leaching aluminum by aqueous solution of NaOH at the same conditions,skeletal Fe from the RQ alloy give the higher specific surface area and larger pore volume. The in -situ XRD shows that skeletal Fe from RQ alloy is composed of elemental iron and magnetite (FeFe2O4) with poor crystalline. The skeletal Fe from NQ alloy is mainly composed of elemental Fe and minor magnetite. The higher content of the magnetite phase in RQ skeletal Fe may arise from the higher activity of the RQ alloy. When the skeletal Fe was heated under Ar flow, the content of magnetite phase increased with temperature and became the main composition at 400℃ for the skeletal Fe from the RQ alloy. For the skeletal iron from the NQ alloy, phase change under heating is less obvious compared with that for the RQ skeletal iron. The H2-TPD profiles of the catalysts showed that two H2 desorption peaks appeared in both NQ and RQ skeletal iron, but the temperatures at maximum desorption rate of RQ skeletal iron were higher than those of the NQ skeletal iron. The CO-TPD experiment showed that NQ skeletal iron had the stronger affinity to CO than RQ skeletal iron. The different properties were explained on the basis of structure.