Revealing the Unobvious Relationship between Activation and Performance of Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis Catalysts

Experimental investigation of the relationship between activation and performance was done using a Co-catalyzed Fischer–Tropsch synthesis as a model. This research was aimed at obtaining clarification for two important problems: (1) Can the degree of reduction of the active metal deposited on a multicomponent support be treated as an additive value. (2) Is a high degree of Co reduction necessary for achieving high performance? The Co reduction degree was measured both for each component of a complex support and for a whole catalyst. We found that the Co reduction degree is never additive but determined by the most difficult-to-reduce component and depends primarily on binder properties. It was also shown experimentally that the active Co centers continue to change their reduction degree in the course of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. Thus, the relationship between the activation and performance of catalysts turned out to be more complicated and important for synthetic fuel processes.