Fischer-Tropsch synthesis: optimization of the activation treatment with H2 in a Fe/SBA-15 catalyst.

FIGUEROA, S. J. A.; S. J. STEWART; L. A. CANO; J. F. BENGOA; M. V. CAGNOLI; S. G. MARCHETTI

Lyon

Simposio; 9th Novel Gas Conversion Symposium; 2010

ESRF

Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) is an industrial process used to produce a broad distribution of “clean” hydrocarbons from many years ago. Notwithstanding, the still unsolved major problem is to achieve good selectivity towards certain products of interest. For this purpose, two different methodologies have been applied: the control of the synthesis process conditions or the change of determined structural properties of the catalysts. There are several possible methods to achieve the second scope; one of them is the control of crystal size of the active phase (Fe or Co).  When iron is used as catalyst in FTS a previous activation treatment is necessary. This treatment needs to be optimized when the iron is supported on a solid such as silica due to the interactions between both phases and a common practice is to use long reduction periods. To get the maximum Feº concentration in the Fe/SBA-15 system, during the activation with pure H2, we followed the appearance and disappearance of the different iron species using “in situ” X-ray Absorption Near Edge Struture (XANES) studies at Fe K-edge.