Highly Active and Stable Iron Fischer−Tropsch Catalyst for Synthesis Gas Conversion to Liquid Fuels

A precipitated iron Fischer−Tropsch (F−T) catalyst (100 Fe/3 Cu/4 K/16 SiO 2 on mass basis) was tested in a stirred tank slurry reactor under reaction conditions representative of industrial practice using CO-rich synthesis gas (260 °C, 1.5−2.2 MPa, H 2 /CO = 2 / 3 ). Repeatability of performance and reproducibility of catalyst preparation procedure were successfully demonstrated on a laboratory scale. Catalyst productivity was increased by operating at higher synthesis pressure while maintaining a constant contact time in the reactor and through the use of different catalyst pretreatment procedures. In one of the tests (run SA-2186), the catalyst productivity was 0.86 (g hydrocarbons/g Fe/h) at syngas conversion of 79%, methane selectivity of 3% (weight percent of total hydrocarbons produced), and C 5 + hydrocarbon selectivity of 83 wt %. This represents a substantial improvement in productivity in comparison to state-of-the-art iron F−T catalysts. This catalyst is ideally suited for production of high-quality diesel fuels and C 2 −C 4 olefins from a coal-derived synthesis gas.