Improvement of promoters on the Fischer–Tropsch activity of mechanically mixed Fe catalysts

The precipitated Fe2O3 was promoted with K, Cu, Zn and Al by impregnation and mechanical mixing. Their activity for Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis was tested in fixed bed reactor under the conditions of 503 K and 1.6 MPa syngas (H2/CO = 2). The Fe catalysts co-promoted by K, Cu, Zn and Al showed increasing CO conversion with time on stream. At present, the improvement is ascribed to the increased resistance to water oxidation on active sites and the further formation of active sites during FT synthesis with the addition of K, Cu, Zn and Al to Fe catalysts. The carbon deposition is not responsible for the variety of catalytic activity in this study.