The Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS), which is an effective process to produce clean fuels and high-value added fine chemicals from syngas originated from coal, natural gas, and biomass, plays an increasingly important role in chemical & fuel industries because that a decreased dependence on the non-renewable petroleum and an increased public concern about the environment are required. However, due to the Anderson-Schulz-Flory (ASF) polymerization kinetics, the FT synthesis is non-selective to any specific products. Thus, improving the selectivity of liquid fuels via selective controlling the product distribution of FT synthesis becomes a challenging work. Being one of the most important layered materials, naturally abundant montmorillonite (MMT) have wide applications in the areas of adsorption and catalysis. The alkali metal ions, commonly sodium ion, as charge-balance cations located in the MMT interlayer, are exchangeable. Thus, from this structural information, the textural and acidic properties of the MMT can be tailored in a wide range by various methods. In this talk, our recent work on the modification of the natural MMT in the aspect of porous and acidic properties by acid activation, base treatment, pillaring with SiO2, Al2O3, ZrO2, etc., and the template directed pillaring methods are reported. The porous and acidic properties of the modified MMT characterized by FTIR, XRD, N2 adsorption, NH3-TPD, and TEM are correlated with the FT results, especially product distribution. Importantly, the suitability and the significance for the application of the cheap and abundant natural MMT in controlling the product distribution of FT synthesis over cobalt will be highlighted in the aspect of structural tailoring and acidity regulating.

Modification of montmorillonite for controlling the product distribution of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis over cobalt catalyst

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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