Accelerated Deactivation and Activity Recovery Studies of Ruthenium and Rhenium Promoted Cobalt Catalysts in Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

Accelerated deactivation of Co/Al2O3 catalysts in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and the effect of Re and Ru as the catalytic promoters are reported. 15wt% Co/Al2O3 catalyst and 1wt% Ru and 1.4wt% Re  promoted cobalt catalysts have been formulated and extensively characterized. The deactivation of the unpromoted cobalt catalyst and those promoted with Re and Ru were studied by accelerated method at 260oC. Different sources of deactivation were identified. The amount of activity recovery after regeneration at the conditions of low temperature treatment at 260oC and high temperature treatment at 400oC for the used promoted and unpromoted catalysts were detrmined. It was revealed that promoted catalyst deactivated faster than unpromoted ones. High temperature H2 treatment restored the catalytic activity of the catalysts more than 97.5%.