Operando High-Pressure Studies of CO2 Co-feeding in the Fischer-Tropsch Reaction Using Combined X-ray Scattering and Imaging

The structural evolution of an Fe-based Fischer-Tropsch (FT) catalyst will be investigated during activation, reaction and the co-feeding of CO2 using combined operando PDF-CT and XRD-CT. A new experimental setup with the capability of achieving the reaction conditions used in commercial high-temperature FT processes (350 °C and 20 bar) will be utilised. The combination of high temperature and pressures of toxic, flammable gases, the undoubted mechanistic complexity, and a product slate comprising both gases and liquids makes this an ambitious but potentially rewarding study. The proposed multi-technique approach will permit us to evaluate correlations between catalyst performance and spatially resolve variations in oxidation states, local and atomic structure, composition, and species distribution. These structure-performance relationships will expedite the further development of processes that utilise sources of waste CO2 to produce synthetic crude.