Abstract In order to investigate the effect of manganese addition on Fe@GC catalytic performance for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, the melting method was used to prepare Fe@GC and FeMn@GC catalysts. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and N2 adsorption-desorption techniques. The activities of the different iron-based catalysts were investigated in a fixed bed reactor. The results indicated that the addition of Mn inhibited the hydrogenation of the Fischer-Tropsch intermediate products and improved the selectivity of lower olefins, and the lower olefins selectivity over θ-Fe3C@GC catalyst increased from 10.6% to 38.1%. In addition, the selectivity of lower olefins could reach 41.6% by changing the ratio of Fe and Mn.
