Kinetic study of Fischer–Tropsch process on titania-supported cobalt–manganese catalyst

An active cobalt–manganese catalyst was prepared by co-precipitation method, and was also tested for hydrogenation of carbon monoxide to light olefins. The catalyst was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area techniques. The kinetic experiments on a well-characterized Co–Mn/TiO2 catalyst were performed in a fixed-bed micro-reactor, and were also conducted in a temperature range of 190–280 °C, pressure range of 1–10 bar, H2/CO feed ratio (mol/mol) range of 1–3 and a space velocity range of 2700–5200 h−1. Two kinetic expressions based on Langmuir–Hinshelwood–Houngen–Watson (LHHW) mechanism were observed to fit the experimental data accurately for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis reaction. The kinetic parameters were estimated with non-linear regression method. Activation energies obtained were 35.131 and 44.613 kJ/mol for optimal kinetics models.