Structure-activity relationships of ruthenium Fischer-Tropsch catalysts (metal particle size effects)

Miscellaneous · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6438481

White, Jr, M W

In the group VIII transition metal catalytic conversion of hydrogen/carbon monoxide mixtures to hydrocarbons, it is known that certain catalysts catalyze the production of a narrow boiling range (C{sub 6}-C{sub 12}) product which does not fit the traditional Anderson-Schulz-Flory (ASF) chain growth model. Among the proposed explanations for this selectivity is one based on control of hydrocarbon chain propagation by metal particle size. The focus of this work was to study the effect of metal particle size on catalytic activity for the F-T synthesis. The silica-supported and unsupported Ru catalysts catalyzed the production of a hydrocarbon product which followed the ASF chain growth model and which consisted primarily of n-aklanes and linear 1-alkenes. An equation was derived relating the weight fraction of alkenes and alkanes to the residence times of the alkenes in the reactor and this equation produced a reasonable fit to the experimental data. It was observed that hydrocarbon, CO{sub 2} and CH{sub 4} production increased with time apparently reaching steady state after {approximately}200H. It was also found that increasing reactant gas space velocities (SHSV's) increased the steady state turnover numbers for hydrocarbon, CO{sub 2} and CH{sub 4} production, while at the same time, the AFS probabilities of chain growth and alkene/alkane ratios remained effectively constant.

• Research Organization: Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Richmond, VA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6438481
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
CARBON DIOXIDE
SYNTHESIS
HYDROCARBONS
METHANE
RUTHENIUM
STRUCTURE-ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIPS
CATALYSTS
PARTICLE SIZE
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
ALKANES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
ELEMENTS
METALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLATINUM METALS
SIZE
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
400201* - Chemical & Physicochemical Properties