Vol.:(0123456789) Reaction Kinetics, Mechanisms and Catalysis https://doi.org/10.1007/s11144-019-01585-x 1 3 Al 2 O 3 –FSM16‑supported cobalt catalyst: a promising novel Fischer–Tropsch synthesis catalyst Ali Karimi 1  · Ahmad Tavasoli 2 Received: 6 January 2019 / Accepted: 17 May 2019 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2019 Abstract High specifc surface area ordered meso-porous solid (FSM16) was synthesized by using the organic template method. The surface acidity of solid (FSM16) was modi- fed signifcantly with the addition of alumina content by impregnation of alumina nitrate aqueous solution with Si/Al molar ratios of 10. Al 2 O 3 –FSM16 and conven- tional γ-alumina-supported cobalt catalysts were introduced for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS). The catalysts were prepared using wet impregnation with a cobalt loading of 15.0 wt% and characterized by ICP, TPR, BET, XRD, TEM, NH3-TPD, TGA and H 2 chemisorptions. Finally, the activity, selectivity and stability of the catalysts were assessed in FTS. The characterizations clearly confrmed that mor- phology of the Al 2 O 3 –FSM16 support (surface area, pore volume, pore size distri- bution and crystallite phase) can afect the catalyst performances. The proposed 15 wt% Co/Al 2 O 3 –FSM16 catalyst has shown surprising stability during 120 h continu- ous of FTS reaction and also at frst 24 h of test run, increased the FTS rate from 0.15 to 0.34 g HC/gcat./h, CO conversion by about 68%; also the C 5 + hydrocarbons increased, compared to that prepared by conventional γ-alumina support (Conndea Vista Catalox B g-alumina). Keywords γ-Alumina · Cobalt catalyst · Fischer–Tropsch synthesis · Al 2 O 3 – FSM16 · Activity and selectivity · Stability Introduction The gas to liquid (GTL) process has attracted much attention for producing a large variety of products like liquid hydrocarbons that are free of sulfur and aro- matic pollutants. Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is the chemical heart of GTL * Ali Karimi karimial@ripi.ir 1 Catalyst Division, Research Institute of the Petroleum Industry, P.O. Box: 187454163, Tehran, Iran 2 School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran