With over 85 % of the world's energy dependent on fossil fuels the increasing price and dwindling supply is likely to have a large impact on society. When combined with the long timescale and large cost associated with their substitution it becomes obvious that a new route for their production is essential. CO2 has been gaining significant attention as a possible feedstock for hydrocarbon formation due to its low cost and renewable nature. This can be achieved through a two-step process, the reduction of CO2 to CO via the reverse water gas shift reaction followed by hydrocarbon formation by the Fischer-Tropsch process. Our work focuses on the development of nano-catalysts that are active for both steps simultaneously. When used alone, in the absence of promoters, iron based catalyst systems can possess problems with deactivation and high selectivity to undesirable products such as methane. In order to counteract this problem we have investigated a range of novel promoters and their effects on iron-silica nano-catalysts. Our work has shown that through the addition of only small amounts of various metals a large effect on both conversion and selectivity can be obtained. Investigated catalyst systems have been characterised using a range of techniques such as SEM, TEM, (Figure 1) EDS, XPS and BET. Figure 1.  Example SEM (a) and TEM (b) images recorded for a 20wt%Fe/SiO2 catalyst.

Promoted iron-silica nano-catalysts for the formation of hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide

246th National Meeting (2013)

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