Reverse Water Gas Shift Activity of Fe_xNi Catalysts on Metal Oxide-Overlayered γ-Al₂O₃ Supports

ABSTRACT

Power-to-Liquid (PtL) processes, which produce liquid fuels from captured CO₂ and green H₂ via methanol synthesis or Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, offer a promising route to sustainable carbon-based energy carriers for sectors that cannot be readily electrified. A key step in these processes is the endothermic reverse water-gas shift (rWGS) reaction, which activates CO₂. However, the rWGS reaction is severely constrained by thermodynamic limitations, and catalyst systems must effectively suppress competing pathways such as methanation.

In this work, we investigate supported FeₓNi-based catalysts, which have shown considerable promise for the rWGS reaction in the literature. Specifically, we explore the critical effects of the catalyst support and alloy composition using metal oxide overlayers as model systems. This strategy allows us to isolate and examine the electronic properties of the metal oxides, minimizing the influence of structural factors such as pore volume and surface area.

BIO

Nico Fischer studied chemical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany before joining the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Catalysis c*change at the University of Cape Town as a PhD student in 2007.

After graduation in 2011, Nico joined BASF SE in Ludwigshafen, Germany, as research team leader and worked on selective oxidation catalysts. In 2014 he returned to the Catalysis Institute at UCT, initially as Senior Research Officer, since 2018 as associate Professor and since 2023 as Deputy Director of the Catalysis Institute and DSTI/NRF SARChI Chair in Sustainable Catalysis. Since 2024 he is a full Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and has been appointed as Director of the Catalysis Institute. His work focuses on the development and design of novel catalytic materials used predominantly in synthesis gas conversion and CO₂ activation reactions with a strong focus on in situ and operando material characterizations.