abstract
The effect of reduction temperature (200e450 C) and various atmospheres on the performance of Fe-Ni
- Co catalyst in a fixed bed reactor have been investigated. Catalysts were prepared by co-precipitation
procedure and used for CO hydrogenation in FischereTropsch synthesis (FTS). The catalyst which was
reduced at 300 C under H2 atmosphere showed the best catalytic performance for higher CO conversion
and low CH4 selectivity. The initial activity depends on the atmosphere used and is in the order of
H2 > CO > H2: CO ¼ 1. XRD, SEM/EDS, and BET characterization of precursor, calcinated and reduced
catalysts showed that while by increasing reduction temperature; the pore volume increases and their
pore size decreases. It was observed that the phase composition of catalysts reduced with H2 is strongly
dependent on the pretreatment conditions.