Mo2C/Al2O3 catalyst was synthesized by temperature-programmed carburization of the impregnated MoO3 utilizing H2/C3H8 as carbon agent. Effect of different variables including carburization temperature (723-973 K), reaction time (2-5 h) and H2:C3H8 ratio (1-5) was investigated following a 23-factorial design strategy to optimize physiochemical characteristics of resulting solid compound. The carburized catalysts possess high surface area ranging from 166.3 to 213.8 m2g-1, but pore volume was essentially insensitive to the carburisation conditions. ANOVA revealed that temperature and composition-temperature interaction were the statistically most important effects on the BET area. The total organic carbon content on the catalysts was also significantly influenced by temperature, composition and the composition-temperature interaction. NH3 temperature-programmed desorption carried out with different heating rates of 10, 15, 20 30 K indicated that peaks in region of 450-550 K corresponding Lewis acid centres. Catalysts prepared under various conditions were then evaluated in a combinatorial reactor facility at temperature of 423 K and 1 atm using H2: CO ratio of 3. The results showed that catalyst carburized at 973 K for 2 h in carburizing feed with H¬2: C3H8 ratio=5 exhibited the highest reaction rate of 7.14x10-7 mol g-1 s-1. Statistical analysis of rate data from the catalysts indicated that improvement in FTS rate is correlated with high carburization temperature and H¬2: C3H8 ratio. Regression polynomials for predicting the behaviour of each performance index as a function of the main effects were derived and optimised via linear programming. Detailed discussion is given in the full length paper.