Deactivation by sintering of the cobalt catalyst during the Fischer-Tropsch reaction

In the present work, the deactivation by sintering of cobalt-based catalyst during Fischer-Tropsch synthesis at low temperature was studied by numerical simulation. For this purpose, a mathematical model was developed. The obtained simulation results allowed us to highlight and improve the understanding of the deactivation phenomena of cobalt-based Fischer-Tropsch catalysts by sintering. The main results also show that the sintering phenomenon is strongly dependent on the operating conditions, in particular, the temperature, the pressure, and the H2/CO molar ratio, as well as the reaction by-products such as water. The results obtained can, therefore, be used to understand more the sintering mechanism which may be linked to the change in the concentration of the active sites and the reaction rates.