Environmental-friendly economical cordierite-mullite-based ceramics for kiln furniture production and supports for CO2 hydrogenation towards C5+ fuels

In this study, lightweight cordierite-mullite ceramics with high strength and high thermal-shock resistance were successfully synthesized by solid-state method with the usage of hollow ceramic microspheres. After careful physico-chemical and mechanical characterization, we gained an economical cordierite material with a low bulk density of 1.40 g/cm3 with an apparent porosity of 44.78%, a flexural strength of 20.17 MPa and a coefficient of thermal expansion of 2.26 × 10−6 oC−1 compared to the bulk counterpart with a bulk density of 2.00 g/cm3 with an apparent porosity of 25.75%, a flexural strength of 23.69 MPa and a coefficient of thermal expansion of 2.47 × 10−6 oC−1. As a catalyst support of Na-FeOx, the economical cordierite has proved the same stability and activity in CO2 hydrogenation towards C5+ fuels as bulk cordierite-based catalyst counterparts.