The conversion of synthesis gas (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) to value-added chemicals has attracted significant attention in the past few years. Strong emphasis has been placed on enabling a process that allows the production of short olefins from synthesis gas, which can be derived from coal, biomass, or natural gas. Here, we introduce bifunctional catalysis to tailor the selectivity towards aromatics next to olefins by combining an iron-based Fischer–Tropsch to olefins catalyst with the acid function of a zeolite. Olefins were formed from synthesis gas on an iron-based catalyst and partly converted to aromatics on the acid sites of the zeolite. Surprisingly, this aromatization did not follow the pathway of hydrogen transfer, whereby three paraffin molecules are produced for every aromatic molecule formed, which allowed us to obtain carbon selectivity towards chemicals (sum of lower olefins and aromatics) of 70–80 % at 1 bar reaction pressure. Increasing the partial pressure of hydrogen led to substantial hydrogenation of olefins towards paraffins.

The development of synthetic protocols for the preparation of highly loaded metal nanoparticle-supported catalysts has received a great deal of attention over the last few decades. Independently controlling metal loading, nanoparticle size, distribution, and accessibility has proven challenging because of the clear interdependence between these crucial performance parameters. Here we present a stepwise methodology that, making use of a cobalt-containing metal organic framework as hard template (ZIF-67), allows addressing this long-standing challenge. Condensation of silica in the Co-metal organic framework pore space followed by pyrolysis and subsequent calcination of these composites renders highly loaded cobalt nanocomposites (~ 50 wt.% Co), with cobalt oxide reducibility in the order of 80% and a good particle dispersion, that exhibit high activity, C5 + selectivity and stability in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.