The hydrogenation of CO2 to hydrocarbons over precipitated iron catalysts w
as carried out in a stirred tank slurry reactor. Effects of potassium promo
tion and structural promotion using Al2O3 :or SiO2 on the activity and sele
ctivity were investigated with the co-precipitated Fe-Cu-Al (or Si)-K catal
ytic system. Also, tha-reaction performance in the slurry reactor was compa
red: with that in a fixed-bed reactor. The addition of either Al2O3 or SiO2
by the mixing method gave hardly any improvement in the catalytic activity
or selectivity in CO2 hydrogenation. Instead, the addition of SiO2 by the
mixing method lowered the selectivities to long-chain hydrocarbons and olef
ins, However, the addition of Al2O3 by co-precipitation increased CO2 conve
rsion as well as the selectivity to C2+ hydrocarbons, but decreased the sel
ectivity to CO. The addition of potassium promoted the CO2 hydrogenation ac
tivity and the selectivity to hydrocarbons, shifted the product distributio
n to the direction of olefins and long-chain hydrocarbons, In terms of CO2
conversion and hydrocarbon selectivity, K/Fe = 6/100 is the optimum K level
at the-conditions employed in the present study. The comparison of slurry
and fixed-bed reactors showed that the slurry reactor was not as favorable
as the fixed-bed reactor for CO2 hydrogenation, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B
.V. All rights reserved.