The Effects of SiO2 and Al2O3 Binders on the Activity and Selectivity of Bifunctional Fe/HZSM-5 Catalyst in Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis.

The influence of SiO2 and Al2O3 binders on the catalyst performance and products selectivity of the precipitated Fe-Cu-K catalyst physically mixtured with HZSM-5 was studied in a fixed bed tubular reactor. The iron catalyst was mixed with HZSM-5 zeolite and shaped to cylinders form by alumina and or silica as a binder for increasing the mechanical strength of bifunctional catalyst. The catalyst activity was tested under reaction condition, P=17 bar, T=290 °C , H2/CO=1 and GHSV= 3.07 NL.h-1.g.Fe-1. The results showed that the catalyst activity for Fischer – Tropsch and water gas shift reactions for silica binders is lower than alumina and secondary reactions in the presence of alumina is higher .