ZSM-5 supported iron catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch production of light olefin

Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) for olefin production from syngas was studied on Fe–Cu–K catalysts supported on ZSM-5 with three different Si/Al ratios. The catalysts were prepared by slurry-impregnation method of metallic components, and were characterized by BET surface area, XRD, hydrogen TPR and ammonia TPD. Fe–Cu–K/ZSM-5 catalyst with a low Si/Al ratio (25) is found to be superior to the other catalysts in terms of better C2–C4 selectivity in the FTS products and higher olefin/(olefin + paraffin) ratio in C2–C4 because of the facile formation of iron carbide during FTS reaction and also due to a larger number of weak acidic sites that are present in these catalysts.