Effect of process conditions on the surface reaction rates and catalytic performance of MgO supported Fe–Co–Mn catalyst for CO hydrogenation

The Fe–Co–Mn/MgO catalyst was prepared using co-precipitation procedure; effects of reaction conditions on the catalytic performance for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis have been investigated. Experiments were carried out under a wide range of reaction conditions including reaction temperature of 473–673 K, pressure of 1–10 bar, H2/CO feed molar ratio of 1–4 and space velocity of 3150–7200 h−1. We also reported further results regarding the effect of various operational conditions on different surface reaction rates. It was found that the optimum operational conditions are H2/CO = 2/1, GHSV = 4500 h−1, T = 573 K and P = 1 bar. Characterization of both precursor and calcined catalysts was carried out using XRD, SEM, BET and TPR.