Influence of lanthanum on the performance of Zr-Co/activated carbon catalysts in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis

The influence of La loading on Zr-Co/activated carbon (AC) catalysts has been studied for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The catalyst samples were characterized by XRD, TPR, CO-TPD, and temperature programmed CO hydrogenation. The catalytic property was evaluated in a fixed bed reactor. The experimental results showed that CO conversion increased from 86.4% to 92.3% and the selectivity to methane decreased from 14.2% to 11.5% and C5+ selectivity increased from 71.0% to 74.7% when low La loading (La = 0.2wt%) was added into the Zr-Co/AC catalyst. However, high loadings of La (La = 0.3-1.0 wt%) would decrease catalyst activity as well as the C5+ selectivity and increase methane selectivity. XRD results displayed that La-modified Zr-Co/AC catalyst had little effect on the dispersion of Co catalyst. But, the results of TPR, CO-TPD, and temperature programmed CO hydrogenation techniques indicated that the extent of cobalt reduction was found to greatly influence the activity and selectivity of the catalyst. The addition of a small amount of La increased the reducibility of the Zr-Co/AC catalyst and restrained the formation of methane and improved the selectivity to long chain hydrocarbons. However, excess of La led to the decrease of the reducibility of Co catalyst thus resulted in higher methanation activity.