Effect of support and cobalt precursors on the activity of Co/AlPO4 catalysts in Fischer–Tropsch synthesis

✍ Scribed by Jong Wook Bae; Seung-Moon Kim; Suk-Hwan Kang; Komandur V.R. Chary; Yun-Jo Lee; Hyo-Jin Kim; Ki-Won Jun

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 712 KB
• Volume: 311
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1381-1169
• DOI: 10.1016/j.molcata.2009.07.011

✦ Synopsis

Cobalt supported on amorphous aluminum phosphate (Co/AlPO 4 ) catalysts were prepared by the impregnation method using three different cobalt precursors such as cobalt nitrate, acetate and chloride to elucidate the activity of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The use of AlPO 4 as a support for cobalt-based catalysts exhibits better catalytic performance during FTS reaction than the corresponding Co/Al 2 O 3 catalyst. TPR results also suggest that the reducibility of the catalysts varies with the nature of cobalt precursors employed during the impregnation on AlPO 4 support. The Co/AlPO 4 catalyst prepared from cobalt nitrate shows higher CO conversion and C 8 + selectivity than the others due to the facile formation of homogeneous cobalt particles with proper electronic characters and high reducibility. Interestingly, all Co/AlPO 4 showed a growth of filamentous carbon initiated from the large mobile cobalt particles during the reaction. The differences in catalytic properties of Co/AlPO 4 are mainly attributed to the cobalt particle size, reducibility with different electronic states of metallic cobalt, pore diameter of AlPO 4 and formation of filamentous carbon.