Reduction behaviour for Co/Al₂O₃ Fischer-Tropsch catalyst in presence of H₂or CO

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of reducing Co/Al₂O₃ Fischer-Tropsch (FT) catalyst using H₂ or CO gas on catalyst properties. The catalyst was prepared by direct impregnation of the Al₂O₃ support with Co(NO ₃)₂.6H₂O solution and calcined in air at 500 ^°C for 10 hours to decompose and transform the cobalt nitrate to cobalt oxide. XRF, XRD and BET analyses were used to characterize the catalyst. The study on catalyst reducibility was performed using Temperature programmed reduction (TPR) of 300 mg calcined Co/Al₂O₃ catalyst using H₂ and CO containing gas mixture respectively. The extent of catalyst reduction with CO and H₂ was calculated as a proportion of Co₃O₄ that was reduced to Co⁰ during the reduction process in presence of H₂or CO. The extent of catalyst reduction was found to be 31.6 and 90.9% when catalyst was reduced with H ₂ and CO respectively. It was concluded that more Co species were reduced when reduction was conducted in the presence of CO than in the presence of H₂.