Catalytic Performance of Fe‐Mn/SiO 2 Nanocatalysts for CO Hydrogenation

A series of x (Fe, Mn)/SiO 2 nanocatalysts ( x = 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 wt.%) were prepared by sol‐gel method and studied for the light olefins production from synthesis gas. It was found that the catalyst containing 20 wt.% (Fe, Mn)/SiO 2 is an optimal nano catalyst for production of C 2 –C 4 olefins. Effects of sulfur treatment on the catalyst performance of optimal catalyst have been studied by espousing different volume fractions of H 2 S in a fixed bed stainless steel reactor. The results show that the catalyst treated with 6 v% of H 2 S had high catalytic performance for C 2 –C 4 light olefins production. The best operational conditions were H 2 /CO = 3/2 molar feed ratio at 260°C and GHSV = 1100 h −1 under 1 bar total pressure. Characterization of catalysts was carried out using X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and surface area measurements.