The Effect of the Polymer Type in the Three-Phases Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Catalyzed by suspended Iron Nanocatalysts

Abstract

<jats:p>Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) was conducted over paraffin-iron catalysts of three phases system with synthetic polymers that contains different compositions. The suspended iron nanocatalyst was introduced into the slurry reactors Fischer-Tropsch with range temperature (220-320)oC at 2.0 MPa, the atomic ratio contains: 100Fe/100 Paraffin/10 wt% polymer. The study of phase, structure and morphology of the nanocatalyst using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscope (AFM) techniques confirmed that there are two phases of iron oxides Fe3O4 and δ-FeOOH are existed. Maximum conversion of CO to yields of total liquid hydrocarbons that obtained was 74% and 62 g/m3 of FTS over the catalyst Fe-Paraffin/ Polyethylene glycol (Fe-P/PEG) compared to Fe-Paraffin/ Polyethylene terephthalate (Fe-P/PET) and Fe-Paraffin/polycarbonate (Fe-P/PC) systems. The results shows that the polymer type and their structure as well as preparation time of the iron nanocatalysts have high influence on the particle size value. A selectivity of 65% of syngas converted C5+ liquid hydrocarbons achieved using (Fe-P/PEG) catalyst.</jats:p>