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Integrated tuneable synthesis of liquid fuels via Fischer–Tropsch technology

Abstract

To tune the product selectivity by controlling the complicated reaction path is a big challenge in Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. Here, we report an integrated catalytic process for the direct conversion of syngas (CO/H2) into different types of liquid fuels without subsequent hydrorefining post-treatments of Fischer–Tropsch waxes. Outstanding selectivities for gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel as high as 74, 72 and 58% are achieved, respectively, by only using mesoporous Y-type zeolites in combination with cobalt nanoparticles. The types of liquid fuels can be readily tuned by controlling the porosity and acid properties of the zeolites. We further build a new product-distribution model for the bifunctional catalysts, which do not obey the traditional Anderson–Schulz–Flory (ASF) distribution. The present work offers a simple and effective method for the direct synthesis of different types of liquid fuels.

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Fig. 1: Schematic for the conversion of natural gas, biomass and coal into liquid fuels.
Fig. 2: Catalytic performance.
Fig. 3: Characterization of the porous and acidic properties of Ymeso zeolites.
Fig. 4: Deviation of ideal ASF distribution and bifunctional catalyst distribution model.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan, Japan Science and Technology Agency (MIRAI-JPMJMI17E2) and Natural Science Foundation of China (21433008, 91545203 and 21528302). We acknowledge J. Kang (Xiamen University, China), M. Tan (Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), and A. Hashimoto, T. Hara and Y. Hara (National Institute for Materials Science, Japan) for performing supplementary reaction tests and characterization in the later stages of this work.

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Authors

Contributions

J.L., Y.H., L.T. and P.Z. performed most of the experiments and analysed the experimental data. A.O. performed the TEM characterization. X.P., Y.W. and N.T. designed the study, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. H.A. and G.Y. contributed to the experimental design. N.T. supervised the whole project. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript at all stages.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiaobo Peng, Ye Wang or Noritatsu Tsubaki.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1–13; Supplementary Figures 1–17; Supplementary Note; Supplementary Equations; Supplementary References

Supplementary Data Set 1

Matrix for the Gasoline distribution model

Supplementary Data Set 2

Matrix for the Jet fuel distribution model

Supplementary Data Set 3

Matrix for the Diesel distribution model

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Li, J., He, Y., Tan, L. et al. Integrated tuneable synthesis of liquid fuels via Fischer–Tropsch technology. Nat Catal 1, 787–793 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-018-0144-z

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