New Mechanism Insight For The Hydrogenation Of Co/Co2 Gas Mixtures To Hydrocarbons Over Iron-Based Catalyst

Iron-based catalysts are the most suitable candidates for converting CO2 or CO2-rich syngas to hydrocarbons. However, several issues about the mechanism of CO2 hydrogenation are still unclear. In this work, we investigated the performance of an iron-based catalyst with H-2/CO2, H-2/CO/N-2 and H-2/CO/(CO2)-C-13/N-2 gas mixtures at the same process conditions (T = 270 degrees C, P = 175 psi and SV = 3 NL/h/g(cat)). The CO2 hydrogenation rate was much lower than that observed for CO hydrogenation. (CO2)-C-13 tracer experiments indicated that CO2 is hydrogenated to hydrocarbons via the reverse water-gas shift even when present in small concentration (1.8 vol%). C-13 enrichment was observed in both CO and C-1-C-4 hydrocarbons.