Features of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis in the presence of an iron-containing catalyst supported on the surface of spherical nanosilica

Abstract

Features of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis in the presence of an iron-containing catalyst supported on spherical nanosilica (the average sizes of spherical SiO₂ and iron-containing particles on the silica surface are 250 and 14 nm, respectively) are studied. The catalyst exhibits high activity in the conversion of syngas, viz., 7.6 times higher than the activity of a 20% Fe/silica gel catalyst. A distinctive feature of a catalyst supported on spherical silica is higher selectivity for liquid products, which decreases only slightly with increasing temperature. Reduction characteristics are studied using the temperature-programmed reduction method; the specific surface area is measured and the phase composition of the synthesized catalyst systems is determined by X-ray diffraction analysis.