Liquid Phase Hydrogenation of Carbon Monoxide Using Ultrafine Particles of Cobalt as Catalyst

Liquid phase Fischer-Tropsch synthesis was investigated with ultrafine particles (UFP) composed of Co. The catalytic activity of Co UFP was higher than that of precipitated Co catalyst. Apparent activation energies on Co UFP and the precipitated Co were found to be 16, and 10kcal/mol, respectively. Furthermore, Co UFP exhibited very low selectivity for methane formation compared with the precipitated catalyst. The activity and selectivity of Co catalyst supported on SiO2 for production of higher hydrocarbons increased, and the apparent activation energy increased with increasing pore diameter of SiO2 support. These results indicated that the reaction on the precipitated catalyst was affected by diffusion of the reactant into the pores. We conclude that nonporous structure of Co UFP provided high catalytic activity and selectivity for higher hydrocarbons.