R&D Seed Grant: Toward Understanding How Alkali Promoters Alleviate CO2 Production and enhance Cain Growth Probability Over Iron Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Catalysts

The production of crude in the U.S. is declining as the use of transportation fuel increases. At the same time, the U.S. has an abundance of coal, and Kentucky has an abundance of this resource so that it produces nearly 20% ofthe Nations production. If coal could be converted to transportation fuels, this would provide a great benefit to the well being of the Nation, and especially Kentucky. The conversion of coal to transportation fuels using the Fischer- Tropsch process provides extremely clean fuels that exceed the requirements for tomorrow's emissions standards. The relevance of the proposed project is provided in the Research Description. A goal of the proposed project is to develop guidelines for catalyst compositions that will allow synthesis gas generated from coal to be utilized in the Fischer- Tropsch process to generate transportation fuels without producing excess hydrogen and carbon dioxide through the competing water-gas-shift (WGS) reaction. Another goal of the proposed research is to permit the CAER to retain its leadership role in the coal to liquids research and development areas.