The increasing demand for energy, coupled with the uncertainty and expense of crude oil imports, has renewed interest in the production of fuels and chemicals from hydrogen-deficient materials. These energy sources such as coal, residua, oil shale, and tar sands can be gasified with steam and oxygen to produce a gas containing large quantities of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Once methane is removed from this CO/H2 mixture it is purified to remove S poisons and then reacted over a catalyst to produce a variety of organic products. The synthesis of hydrocarbon products, with the exception of methane, is commonly referred to as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction.

Catalytic synthesis of hydrocarbons from carbon monoxide and hydrogen

Incorporation of surface carbon into hydrocarbons during Fischer-Tropsch synthesis: Mechanistic implications

Work function of metals

https://escholarship.org/content/qt9sn947kj/qt9sn947kj.pdf?t=p2asqs

The hydrogenation of CO and CO2 over polycrystalline rhodium: Correlation of surface composition, kinetics and product distributions

When a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen is contacted with some metals (Co, Ru, Ni, Fe), a great number of reactions occur. Some of them are schematically described by the following stiochio-metric equations Reaction (1) with m=1 was discovered by Sabatier [1] and is usually called methanation. Reactions (1) to (3) with m < 1 are the Fischer-Tropsch [2] synthesis of hydrocarbons. There are several very good review papers [3–8] on this subject, and it is not intended to add another paper to this collection. Rather, results obtained during the last few years at Leiden will be reviewed. The mechanism suggested is still somewhat speculative; however, some experimental evidence exist for all aspects of the mechanism.

G. Schroll

Papers

The interaction of hydrogen and carbon monoxide on polycrystalline nickel films at temperatures up to 353 K

Adsorption of carbon monoxide on polycrystalline nickel films