Solid superacids as coal liquefaction catalysts

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:5540112

Tierney, J W; Wender, I

Direct coal liquefaction under mild conditions can be achieved by the use of strong acid catalysts. This research is aimed at exploring the possibility of mile coal liquefaction in the presence of solid superacids, especially oxides of iron, titanium, zirconium, and hafnium treated with sulfate ions. Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}} has been shown to be an impressively active catalyst in coal conversion at 400{degree}C. Our objective is to find conditions under which Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}} and similar systems catalyze the conversion of coal at mild conditions of temperature and pressure. To date, Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}}, Ti{sub 2}/SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}}, ZrO{sub 2}/SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}} catalysts have been synthesized and characterized by XRD, BET, IR, acidity measurement, and sulfur analysis, and a comparison of the relative reactivity of these superacids for n- pentane isomerization and conversion of diphenyl ether and diphenylmethane in both batch and fixed bed reactor systems has been carried out. In this quarter we extended our study of pentane conversion and tested the above catalysts in hydrocracking of longer linear alkanes. We investigated the conversion of coal model compounds including diphenylmethane, dibenyl ether and phenyl benzyl ether at room temperature. We have started work on the conversion of coal at 400{degree}C under hydrogen pressure using an Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SO{sub 4}{sup 2{minus}} catalyst. 3 refs., 3 figs.

• Research Organization: Pittsburgh Univ., PA (USA). Dept. of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-87PC79928
• OSTI ID: 5540112
• Report Number(s): DOE/PC/79928-T13; ON: DE91015068
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
COAL LIQUEFACTION
CATALYSTS
ETHERS
CONVERSION
PENTANE
ISOMERIZATION
CRACKING
HAFNIUM OXIDES
IRON OXIDES
PROGRESS REPORT
SPECIFICITY
SULFATES
TITANIUM
ZIRCONIUM OXIDES
ALKANES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
HAFNIUM COMPOUNDS
HYDROCARBONS
IRON COMPOUNDS
LIQUEFACTION
METALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PYROLYSIS
REFRACTORY METAL COMPOUNDS
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
ZIRCONIUM COMPOUNDS
010405* - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Hydrogenation & Liquefaction