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Title: Identification and removal of the organic compounds in coal-conversion condensate waters. [Dimethyl hydantoin]

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5322632

The purpose of this investigation is research on physical-chemical treatment processes to achieve bulk removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) from coal-conversion condensate waters. It is anticipated tht combinations of steam stripping and solvent extraction will economically meet most treatment goals. However, there is evidence in the literature which suggests that a significant fraction of the COD in many condensate waters is composed of compounds which are more polar than phenol. This presents two problems. First, these compounds may have very low distribution coefficients into common industrial solvents such as diisopropyl ether (Phenosolvan process) or methylisobutyl ketone (Chem-Pro process). Second, these compounds may not be extracted by methylene chloride, so they may not respond to the GC/MS analytical techniques which are currently used to study these water streams. In this work the literature has been reviewed, and solvent extraction studies have been performed. These studies show that a large fraction of the COD can be economically removed with solvent extraction. The fraction of the COD which remains is significant, however, and is apparently composed of very polar compounds. A sample-preparation technique employing azeotropic distillation with isopropanol has been developed and recovers very polar compounds which are sufficiently non-volatile and soluble in isopropanol for qualitative analysis by GC-MS. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to obtain quantitative information about these compounds, as well as the simple phenolics. Dimethyl hydantoin and related compounds have been identified in a coal gasification condensate water for the first time. However, the levels of these compounds appear to be affected by sample age and storage conditions. This behavior is presently being further investigated.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00098
OSTI ID:
5322632
Report Number(s):
LBL-13584-Rev.; CONF-8106109-3-Rev.1; ON: DE82016942
Resource Relation:
Conference: Workshop on processing needs and methodology for wastewaters from the conversion of coal, oil shale and biomass to synfuels, Germantown, MD, USA, Jun 1981
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English