Optimum High-Quality Ceramic Support Like SiC, Al2O3 & TiO2 for Cobalt As a Very Active Metal for Fisher-Tropsch-Synthesis in a Fixed Bed Reactor Configuration

A series of experiments were performed on indigenously synthesized catalyst pallets of cobalt as a very active metal on ceramic support like SiC, Al 2 O 3 & TiO 2 in a fixed bed reactor configuration with an aim to study the catalyst activity & selectivity, chemical kinetics, design flexibility, temperature, pressure by characteristics diffusion distance.Catalyst pallets were prepared and then characterized by N 2 adsorption, X-ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscope, and Temperature Programmed Reduction.The results showed the Brunauer, Emmett and Teller area of SiC was the lowest among the three supports prepared for testing.However, its reducibility showed improvement with use of cobalt acetate, as a precursor, rather than cobalt nitrates.Mechanical strength and behavior was checked by the hardness testing machine.Fischer Tropsch (FT) synthesis experiments were performed in the fixed bed reactor set at 450-500 K and 2.3-2.5 MPa using synthetic gas having H 2 /CO ration = 2.0.FT synthesis showed that cobalt/silicon carbide catalyst gives high CO conversion and lower methane selectivity, compared to Co/Al 2 O 3 and Co/TiO 2 , as well as high C5 + selectivity of almost 90%.Moreover, its stability was enhanced by the addition of ZrO 2, as without this addition, the Co/SiC interactions are weaker and can cause carbon sintering, and thus, the deactivation rate to increase.