Influence of Cobalt Precursor on Efficient Production of Commercial Fuels over FTS Co/SiC Catalyst

β-SiC-supported cobalt catalysts have been prepared from nitrate, acetate, chloride and citrate salts to study the dependence of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) on the type of precursor. Com/SiC catalysts were synthetized by vacuum-assisted impregnation while N2 adsorption/desorption, XRD, TEM, TPR, O2 pulses and acid/base titrations were used as characterization techniques. FTS catalytic performance was carried out at 220 ̋C and 250 ̋C while keeping constant the pressure (20 bar), space velocity (6000 Ncm3/g ̈h) and syngas composition (H2/CO:2). The nature of cobalt precursor was found to influence basic behavior, extent of reduction and metallic particle size. For β-SiC-supported catalysts, the use of cobalt nitrate resulted in big Co crystallites, an enhanced degree of reduction and higher basicity compared to acetate, chloride and citrate-based catalysts. Consequently, cobalt nitrate provided a better activity and selectivity to C5 (less than 10% methane was formed), which was centered in kerosene-diesel fraction (α = 0.90). On the contrary, catalyst from cobalt citrate, characterized by the highest viscosity and acidity values, presented a highly dispersed distribution of Co nanoparticles leading to a lower reducibility. Therefore, a lower FTS activity was obtained and chain growth probability was shortened as observed from methane and gasoline-kerosene (α = 0.76) production when using cobalt citrate.