Digest Journal of Nanomaterials and Biostructures Vol. 8, No. 1, January - March 2013, p. 347 – 358 EFFECT OF THE REACTION CONDITIONS ON AL-PILLARED MONTMORILLONITE SUPPORTED COBALT-BASED CATALYSTS FOR FISCHER TROPSCH SYNTHESIS N. AHMAD a,b* , S.T. HUSSAIN b , B. MUHAMMAD a , T. MAHMOOD b , Z. ALI b,d , N. ALI c , S.M. ABBAS b , R. HUSSAIN b , S.M. ASLAM e a Department of Chemistry, Hazara University, Mansehra, Pakistan. b National Centre for Physics, QAU campus, Islamabad, Pakistan. c Department of Physics, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. d CEES, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. e Department of Physics, KUST, Kohat, Pakistan. Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis in fixed bed micro reactor (high pressure reaction cell) was studied over different wt% Co supported Na-montmorillonite (NaMMT) and Al-pillared montmorillonite (AlMMT) catalysts. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by XRD, TPR, NH 3 -TPD, TGA, BET and SEM techniques. FT reaction was carried out at temperature 225, 260 and 275 o C and pressure of 1, 5, and 10 bar. Co supported NaMMT catalysts showed very lower CO-conversion along with increase methane selectivity while AlMMT supported Co catalysts gave higher CO-conversion and lower methane selectivity. With increase in reaction temperature from 225 o C to 275 o C methane selectivity and CO-conversion increased and the selectivity towards C 5+ hydrocarbons decreased. Decrease in methane selectivity while increase in C 5+ hydrocarbons and CO- conversion was observed when the pressure was increased to 5 and 10 bar. (Received January 8, 2013; Accepted February 8, 2013) Keywords: Pillared montmorillonite, Aluminium, Cobalt, FT Synthesis, Catalysis, Coal gasification 1. Introduction Due to the increasing energy demand and rapidly depleting resources of petroleum, huge reservoir of natural gas, coal and biomass can be utilized as an alternative to crude oil for the synthesis of sulfur, aromatics and nitrogen free ultra clean fuel along with value added fine chemicals via Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis [1,2]. FT synthesis reaction has attracted worldwide attention to convert syngas (CO and H 2 ) via gasification of coal, natural gas and biomass to liquid hydrocarbons by the use of different catalysts [3,4]. The most widely used catalysts for the FT synthesis include different forms of Ni, Fe, Ru and Co metals [5]. The use of these catalysts is limited due to the excessive CH 4 production in case of Ni and high price of Ru, leaving only Co and Fe as feasible catalysts in FT synthesis [6]. Due to the lower extent of deactivation, water gas shift activity and selectivity towards linear hydrocarbons, Co is preferred over Fe-based catalysts in academic as well as on industrial scale [7]. The choice of support plays a significant role in FT synthesis, the activity and product selectivity of catalysts is markedly affected by the nature of support [8]. A variety of supports such as SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 SBA-15, MCM 48 have been used to improve the dispersion of Co hence its catalytic activity [9-13]. * Corresponding author: nisar_shawar@yahoo.com, nisarchemist@gmail.com