Cheaper Cobalt Catalyst Beckons

摘要

THE QUEST to use alternative feedstocks like natural gas and biomass to produce fuels is spurring increasing interest in long-established Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS). That technology typically relies on expensive cobalt-based catalysts. Now, researchers at the Heterogeneous Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry group at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, have developed an efficient cobalt-coated catalyst that promises to provide significant savings. It consists of a 1-nm-thick cobalt shell on an 8-nm iron oxide core. The catalyst synthesis method is low cost and scalable to the multi-ton quantities required for commercial FTS units, add the researchers.