Writing Resources
1 Introduction Fischer Tropsch synthesis FTS is a catalytic process that produces a broad distribution of clean liquid fuels and chemicals from syngas obtained from natural gas coal and biomass 1 2 Cobalt based catalysts are preferred in FTS processes due to their high activity high selectivity to linear paraffins and low water gas shift activity However the challenge with cobalt based FT catalysts is that they deactivate over time 3 8 To make the FTS process economically effective a stable performance of the catalyst is required Therefore studying the catalyst deactivation is an important topic to develop better industrial catalysts The general reasons for catalyst deactivation are poisoning re oxidation deposition of carbonaceous and oxygenated compounds and sintering of active phase 3 4 The poisoning of cobalt can be avoided by purifying the feed gas properly before the reaction Oxidation of Co based catalysts has been studied and ruled out as deactivation mechanisms 9 10 Sintering is the loss of active metal surface area due to the crystalline growth of metal particles and takes place via Ostwald ripening and or coalescence 3 11 Kistamurty et al 12 proposed that Ostwald is the most dominating mechanism from transition electron microscopy TEM experiments on a Co SiO2 catalyst
