Pretreatment of catalyst for hydrocarbon synthesis

Claim 1

IN THE METHOD OF SYNTHESIZING HYDROCARBONS AND OXYGENATED HYDROCARBONS BY REACTING TOGETHER A CARBON MONOXIDE AND HYDROGEN IN CONTACT WITH A FLUIDIZED MASS OF IRON CATALYST AT A SYNTHESIS TEMPERATURE IN THE RANGE OF FROM ABOUT 550*-750* F. AND WHILE UNDER SUPERATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE, THE IMPROVEMENT RESULTING IN MAINTAINING THE CATALYST AT A HIGH ACTIVITY LEVEL AND AT THE SAME TIME REPRESSING THE TENDENCY OF THE CATALYST TO UNDERGO FRAGMENTATION WHICH COMPRISES FIRST REDUCING AN OXYGEN-CONTAINING IRON CATALYST WITH HYDROGEN TO AN OXYGEN CONTENT OF ABOUT 0-10% BY WEIGHT OF THE IRON, THEN TREATING SAID REDUCED CATALYST WITH FRESH FEED SYNTHESIS GAS CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE AND HYDROGEN IN WHICH THERE ARE FROM 1-2 MOLS OF HYDROGEN PER MOL OF CARBON MONOXIDE AT TEMPERATURE OF THE SAME ORDER AS SAID SYNTHESIS TEMPERATUE AND AT A PRESSURE SUBSTANTIALLY LOWER THAN SAID SYNTHESIS PRESSURE FOR A TIME SUFFICIENT TO CARBIDE SAID CATALYST AND TO CONVERT ABOUT 20-50% BY WEIGHT OF ITS IRON CONTENT INTO A MIXTURE OF IRON CARBIDES, IN WHICH THE CARBIDE FE2C PREDOMINTATES AND THEN CONTACTING SAID CARBIDED CATALYST WITH SAID SYNTHESIS GAS AT SAID SYNTHESIS TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE.