The primary aim of our NSF-CREST Bioenergy Center is thermochemical conversion of biomass to fuels. Recently, the use of microreactors to screen various catalysts for Fisher-Tropsch reaction has received enormous attention due to its efficient mass transfer, high heat dissipation for exothermic reaction, high throughput, precise control of hydrodynamics, portability, Lab on chip analysis and easy scale up. Furthermore, microreactors are convenient in terms of fast fabrication, installation, and maintenance. In this study, cobalt, iron and ruthenium nanocatalyts supported on TiO2 have been synthesized by the sol-gel method coated into channels of the microreactor and tested for Fisher-Tropsch activity. The catalysts in microreactors have been characterized by TPR, SEM, EDX, BET and XRD techniques. The surface areas of the powder Co-TiO2, Ru-TiO2 and Fe-TiO2 catalysts are 48.2, 118.9 and 117.1 m2/g, respectively. Preliminary testing are carried out at 220°C, 1 atm and CO: H2 molar ratio of 1:2. The results revealed that, while 12%Ru-TiO2 produced mostly methane and small amount of butane, 12% Co-TiO2 yielded predominantly butane and traces of methane. On the other hand, only the water-gas shift reaction was observed with 12%Fe-TiO2 catalyst. The relative CO conversion and the selectivity of the catalysts towards different hydrocarbon fuels of different chain lengths will be presented.

TiO2 supported Ru, Fe, and Co nano-catalysts coated in microchannel Si-microreactor for Fisher-Tropsch synthesis

251st National Meeting (2016)

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