The Development of a Macro Kinetic Model for a Commercial Co/Pt/Al2O3 Fischer-Tropsch Catalyst

An experimental study was performed with an aged Co/Pt/Al2O3 catalyst in a laboratory slurry reactor to develop a macrokinetic expression for the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis. A semiempirical model was found to be the preferred two-parameter rate equation of the reaction. However, it was shown that this model is virtually indistinguishable from a mechanistically derived three-parameter rate model that assumes the following kinetically relevant steps in the cobalt-FT synthesis: CO dissociation occurs without hydrogen interaction and is not a rate-limiting step; the first hydrogen addition to surface carbon and the second hydrogen addition to surface oxygen are the rate-determining steps.