Machine learning insights into catalyst composition and structural effects on CH4 selectivity in iron-based fischer tropsch synthesis

Fe-based Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) enables the selective conversion of syngas into long-chain hydrocarbons, which can be further refined to produce highly demanded liquid fuels and high-value chemical products. However, developing novel heterogeneous catalysts for FTS with desirable performance characteristics is a challenging task, as their performance depends on various factors such as precursor, support material, promoters, pretreatment conditions and the catalyst structures. Thus, it remains difficult to understand the structure-performance relationship of FTS and to optimize the catalyst formulations and operating conditions rationally. By integrating traditional chemistry with machine learning, we herein establish intrinsic correlations among reduction, reaction conditions, phase information and the methane selectivity of Fe-based FTS, using high quality experimental data. The content of the iron phases in the post-reaction phase, particularly χ-Fe5C2, significantly influences the methane selectivity of the catalyst. Four types of additives K, Cu, SiO2, and Ca could effectively suppress the methane selectivity, most likely by promoting or stabilizing the iron carbide phases, indicated by their strong correlation. The machine learned structure-performance relationships offers new insights into the design of Fe-based FTS catalysts, and could guide the further optimization of the preprocessing conditions and various parameter factors to minimize the methane selectivity of FTS.