Date of Award

Summer 8-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

First Advisor

John McDonald

Abstract

The Fischer Tropsch reaction is a long-standing chemical reaction that enables the generation of hydrocarbons from hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Funding for research in this field has varied over the years due to the economics of producing synthetic fuel versus processing crude oil. The development of new reactors and catalysts has increased the viability of this process, but it still isn’t enough. Presented in this thesis is a novel nanowire catalyst that is not structured in the same manner as conventional catalysts. In this work it is our goal to compare the nanowire catalyst with a traditional catalyst on the basis of activity with respect to metal surface area, hydrocarbon C5+ selectivity, and catalyst longevity. The results from this work indicate that nanowire catalyst activity and C5+ selectivity are similar to traditional catalysts. However, the catalyst activity measured over time indicates that the nanowire catalyst has a far superior longevity when compared to traditional catalyst.

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