Since the turn of the last century when the field of catalysis was born, iron and cobalt have been key players in numerous catalysis processes. These metals, due to their ability to activate CO and CH, haev a major economic impact worldwide. Several industrial processes and synthetic routes use these metals: biomass-to-liquids (BTL), coal-to-liquids (CTL), natural gas-to-liquids (GTL), water-gas-shift, alcohol synthesis, alcohol steam reforming, polymerization processes, cross-coupling reactions, and photocatalyst activated reactions. A vast number of materials are produced from these processes, including oil, lubricants, waxes, diesel and jet fuels, hydrogen (e.g., fuel cell applications), gasoline, rubbers, plastics, alcohols, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, feed-stock chemicals, and other alternative materials. However, given the true complexities of the variables involved in these processes, many key mechanistic issues are still not fully defined or understood. This Special Issue of Catalysis will be a collaborative effort to combine current catalysis research on these metals from experimental and theoretical perspectives on both heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts. We welcome contributions from the catalysis community on catalyst characterization, kinetics, reaction mechanism, reactor development, theoretical modeling, and surface science.

This book is based on a symposium held during the 248th American Chemical Society meeting that focused on use of the Fischer-Tropsch process in producing synthetic fuels. Its contents reflect the four dominant subjects of the meeting: catalyst preparation and activation, catalyst activity and reaction mechanisms, catalyst characterization and related reactions, and topics concerning commercializing the Fischer-Tropsch process. It covers recent developments related to renewable resources and green energy and provides a glimpse of the commercial potential of the Fischer-Tropsch process in synthetic fuel production.

Rising oil costs have stimulated significant interest in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) as a method for producing a synthetic petroleum substitute. Drawn from the proceedings at a symposium held during the 236th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia in August 2008, Advances in Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, Catalysts, and Cataly

The impact of deuterium on the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis was studied with a precipitated iron catalyst in the slurry phase. Deuterium has been used by several research groups to better understand the mechanism of CO hydrogenation. Inverse (k{sub H}/k{sub D} 1), normal (k{sub H}/k{sub D} 1) and no isotope effect (k{sub H}/k{sub D} = 1) have been reported. The conflicting results are thought to arise because rate of reaction is a combination of kinetic and equilibrium factors. In summary, the presence of boron produced only minor changes on the properties of the cobalt catalyst. In earlier studies, it was shown that the presence of boron made the catalyst less susceptible to poisoning by sulfur. Steady-state supercritical Fischer-Tropsch synthesis was studied in the work using a fixed-bed reactor and an unpromoted Co/SiO2 catalyst. This serves as the baseline for promoted catalyst studies. A pentane-hexane mixture was used as the supercritical solvent. Overall reactor pressure, syngas partial pressure and contact time were kept constant to obtain a valid comparison of the impact of solvent density in the catalytic activity and selectivity. Three different partial pressures of the mixture were chosen based on the density-pressure curve in order to investigate the pressure tuning effect to Fischer-Tropsch synthesis near critical region.