Fe-Zn catalysts for the production of high-calorie synthetic natural gas

Yong Hee Lee, Dae Won Lee, Hyoungsik Kim, Hyun Sook Choi, Kwan Young Lee

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    28 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Abstract In this study, Fe-Zn catalysts were applied in a methanation reaction, where the C2-C4 hydrocarbon selectivity was controlled in order to increase the heating value of the synthetic gas product. Fe-Zn catalysts were prepared by the co-precipitation method and were activated via two different pretreatments: carburization (using synthesis gas) and reduction (using diluted hydrogen). The active species within the carburized Fe-Zn catalysts primarily consisted of iron carbides, while magnetite was the dominant species in the reduced Fe-Zn catalysts. The carburized Fe-Zn catalysts exhibited a higher CO conversion between 95.9% and 98.2% compared to the reduced Fe-Zn catalysts with same composition (81.7-89.9%) due to stronger interactions with CO and a higher BET area. The carbon chain growth on both catalysts was nearly identical (0.18-0.23), but reduced Fe-Zn catalysts exhibited higher paraffin-to-olefin ratio up to 4.30, while the carburized catalysts achieved relatively low ratio between 1.95 and 2.76, because magnetite was more efficient in olefin hydrogenation than the iron carbides. The carburized and reduced Fe-Zn catalysts produced high-calorie synthetic natural gas with a heating value of over 56 MJ/Nm3.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number9379
    Pages (from-to)259-268
    Number of pages10
    JournalFuel
    Volume159
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015 Jul 8

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (NRF-2012M1A2A2671682).

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

    Keywords

    • Fe-Zn catalyst
    • Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
    • Heating value
    • High-calorie methanation
    • Synthetic natural gas

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Chemical Engineering
    • Fuel Technology
    • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
    • Organic Chemistry

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