In recent years, the demand of clean transportation fuels alternative to petroleum and the mechanistic understanding of the surface processes over solid catalyst make an increasingly renewed interest on the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS), which is an old reaction for converting syngas to hydrocarbons. Indeed, a significant impact of supports and promoters on the performance of cobalt for FTS has already been revealed, however, a large room for improving the catalytic performance of cobalt is still expectable via catalyst design in the aspects of supports or promoters. In this work, montmorillonite (MMT) was activated by alkaline under different conditions, and its effect on the structural, textural, and acidic properties of MMT was comparatively investigated. Characterization results of IR, XRD, and N2 adsorption indicate that both the structure and textural properties of MMT are strongly dependent on the activation conditions. Under severe activation conditions, the acidity of MMT is significantly enhanced. The 10 wt.% Co-supported MMT and activated MMT (A-MMT) are applied for FTS, and clearly improved selectivity of liquid hydrocarbons is obtained for the Co/A-MMT catalyst. The acidic and textural changes of MMT induced from the desilication during alkaline activation are well correlated with the FTS results.

Montmorillonite activated with potassium hydroxide for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis over cobalt

245th National Meeting (2013)

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