Effects of Cobalt Loading, Particle Size, and Calcination Condition on Co/CNT Catalyst Performance in Fischer–Tropsch Reactions

• Main Authors: Akbarzadeh, Omid, Mohd Zabidi, Noor Asmawati, Wahab, Yasmin Abdul, Hamizi, Nor Aliya, Chowdhury, Zaira Zaman, Aljunid Merican, Zulkifli Merican, Rahman, Marlinda Ab, Akhter, Shamima, Shalauddin, Md, Johan, Mohd Rafie
• Format: Article
• Published: MDPI 2018
• Subjects: QD Chemistry
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/24375/; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym11010007

The strong electrostatic adsorption (SEA) method was applied to the synthesis of a cobalt (Co) catalyst on a multi-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) support. In order to uptake more of the cobalt cluster with higher dispersion, the CNT was functionalized via acid and thermal treatment. The Co/CNT catalyst samples were characterized by a range of methods including the Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface area analyzer, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis, atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), and H2-temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR) analysis. The data from the TEM images revealed that the catalyst was highly dispersed over the external and internal walls of the CNT and that it demonstrated a narrow particle size of 6-8 nm. In addition, the data from the H2-TPR studies showed a lower reduction temperature (420 °C) for the pre-treated catalyst samples. Furthermore, a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) reaction was chosen to evaluate the Co/CNT catalyst performance by using a fixed-bed microreactor at different parameters. Finally finding the optimum value of the cobalt loading percentage, particle size, and calcination conditions of Co/CNT catalyst resulted in a CO conversion and C5+ selectivity of 58.7% and 83.2%, respectively. © 2018 by the authors.