Development of Hydrotalcite Based Cobalt Catalyst for Synthesis of Hydrocarbons from Syngas /

Abstract

Ever increasing energy demand has forced the scientists to find out new solutions to generate energy. Among other forms of energy liquid fuels holds the utmost importance due to their widespread use in energy and transportation sectors. The focus of masses towards environmental concerns of conventional sources has also molded the research to find out relatively clean resources of energy. Fischer Tropsch is one of such technique that can not only generate liquid fuels from various sources but also reduces their adverse environmental impacts. Fischer Tropsch Synthesis is one of such efforts that generate synthetic hydrocarbons from various sources like coal, biomass, natural gas and environmental carbon dioxide. The Fischer Tropsch Synthesis uses syngas to generate a mixture of hydrocarbons, at high temperature and pressure, in the presence of a catalyst. This study focuses on developing a cobalt based catalyst for Fischer Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) process having magnesium aluminium hydrotalcites as support. In this study catalysts are prepared using two different methods: coprecipitation and hydrothermal method using different precipitating agents. First of all, hydrotalcite supported cobalt catalyst are prepared by co-precipitation method using both sodium and potassium based precipitating agent. Secondly two catalysts are prepared by hydrothermal method and using both sodium and potassium based precipitating agents separately. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of all the prepared samples are done using various characterization techniques. XRD and SEM were performed to gather information about the structure and morphology of the catalyst. EDS was used for elemental analysis of the samples. BET and TGA are two techniques that give information about the properties of catalyst like surface area and thermal stability. FTIR was performed to check the purity of samples. The samples were tested for FTS process in a micro reactor especially to check the C5+ selectivity. The product obtained from FTS reactor was analyzed using GC-MS. The results showed very high C5+ selectivity for catalyst prepared by hydrothermal method as compared to catalyst prepared by coprecipitation method.