A catalyst, including silica and iron. The silica is in the form of a mesoporous spherical particle. The iron is in the form of nanoparticles evenly distributed and encapsulated in the silica. The particle size of the silica is between 140 and 160 nm, and the silica includes pores between 2 and 9 nm in diameter.

Certain embodiments are directed to method for making and using an alkali promoted transition metal sulfide Fischer Tropsch catalyst. Certain embodiments are directed to alkali promoted transition metal sulfide Fischer Tropsch catalyst synthesized using steps comprising (i) mixing an ammonium tetrathiomolybdate (ATM) precursor compound with an alkali metal compound and molybdenum disulfide in deionized water to form a reaction mixture, (ii) heating the reaction mixture at a temperature of at least 200, 250, 300, 350, 400C at a pressure of at lease 900, 1000, 1100, 1500, 2000 psi for more than 0.5 1, 1.5, 2.0, 3 or more hours to form a reaction product, (iii) filtering, washing, and drying the reaction product.

A method and an apparatus for producing a chemical compound from biomass based raw material. The bio-mass based raw material is gasified in a gasification device for forming a gasification gas, the gasification gas is treated in the reactor which includes at least one catalyst layer including Fe-based catalyst for forming a hydrocarbon composition, at least one hydrocarbon fraction including olefins is recovered from the hydrocarbon composition, and a chemical compound is formed from the hydrocarbon fraction. Further, the invention relates to the produced chemical compound.

A process can produce alcohols having at least two carbon atoms by catalytic conversion of synthesis gas into a mixture containing alkanes, alkenes, and alcohols. Alkenes are converted into corresponding alcohols in a subsequent step by hydration of the alkanes. Before the hydration and after the catalytic conversion, gas and liquid phases may be separated. Specific catalysts can be employed that have a markedly higher selectivity for alkenes than for alkanes. These catalysts comprise grains of non-graphitic carbon having cobalt nanoparticles dispersed therein. The cobalt nanoparticles have an average diameter d.sub.p from 1 to 20 nm, and an average distance D between nanoparticles is from 2 to 150 nm. The combined total mass fraction of metal ? in the grains ranges from 30% to 70% by weight of the total mass of the grains of non-graphitic carbon, wherein 4.5 dp/?>D?0.25 dp/?.

The invention is directed to a process to prepare ethylene and propylene from a biomass feedstock wherein the process comprises the following steps: (a) a mild gasification of a torrefied biomass feedstock thereby obtaining a char and a gaseous fraction comprising hydrogen, carbon monoxide and a mixture of gaseous organic compounds; (b) a severe gasification of the gaseous fraction in the absence of the char to obtain a substantially tar-free syngas; (c) a Fischer-Tropsch reaction of the substantially tar-free syngas to obtain a first product mixture comprising of methane and C2+ aliphatic hydrocarbons, and (d) a steam cracking reaction of all or part of the C2+ aliphatic hydrocarbons obtained in step (c) to obtain a second product mixture. Methane as isolated from the first and/or the second product mixture may be combusted to generate heat for the endothermal steam cracking reaction in step (d).

The invention concerns a catalyst containing an active cobalt phase deposited on a support comprising alumina, silica or silica-alumina, said support containing a mixed oxide phase containing cobalt and/or nickel, said catalyst being prepared by introducing at least one dicarboxylic acid comprising at least three carbon atoms. The invention also concerns its use in the field of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis processes.

The invention concerns a catalyst containing an active cobalt phase deposited on a support comprising alumina, silica or silica-alumina, said support containing a mixed oxide phase containing cobalt and/or nickel, said catalyst being prepared by introducing at least one organic compound comprising at least one ester function. The invention also concerns its use in the field of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis processes.

A catalyst including between 50.0 and 99.8 percent by weight of iron, between 0 and 5.0 percent by weight of a first additive, between 0 and 10 percent by weight of a second additive, and a carrier. The first additive is ruthenium, platinum, copper, cobalt, zinc, or a metal oxide thereof. The second additive is lanthanum oxide, cerium oxide, magnesium oxide, aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, potassium oxide, manganese oxide, or zirconium oxide.

A unique process and catalyst is described that operates efficiently for the direct production of a high cetane diesel type fuel or diesel type blending stock from stochiometric mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. This invention allows for, but is not limited to, the economical and efficient production high quality diesel type fuels from small or distributed fuel production plants that have an annual production capacity of less than 10,000 barrels of product per day, by eliminating traditional wax upgrading processes. This catalytic process is ideal for distributed diesel fuel production plants such as gas to liquids production and other applications that require optimized economics based on supporting distributed feedstock resources.

There is provided a method for producing hydrocarbon compounds. The method comprising: producing a syngas by introducing a fuel stream comprising a reformable fuel into a reforming system (steam reformer, autothermal reformer, cold plasma reformer and/or internal-reforming fuel cell), and wherein the syngas comprises H.sub.2, CO and CO.sub.2, and has a ratio of [H.sub.2]/[CO] of about 1.4 to about 2.5; producing a decarbonated and dehydrated syngas from the syngas having a ratio of [CO.sub.2]/[CO+CO.sub.2] of no higher than 0.6; performing a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis on the decarbonated and dehydrated syngas in the presence of a cobalt- or iron-based Fischer-Tropsch catalyst, said Fischer-Tropsch catalyst comprising pellets of trilobe, cylindrical, hollow cylinder or spherical construction with diameter about 0.5 mm to about 3.0 mm and aspect ratio of 1 to 3.5, to produce a product stream comprising the hydrocarbon compounds; and recycling aqueous products and/or tail gas.