Low severity conversion of activated coal
The results suggest that coal contains regions with structural components significantly reactive under the hydrothermal environment. Although the specific mechanism for this process remains to be developed, this activity is reminiscent of findings in studies of accelerated maturation of oil shale, where hydrothermal treatment (hydrous pyrolysis) leads to the production of petroleum hydrocarbons. In line with what has been seen in the oil shale work, the pretreatment-generated hydrocarbons and phenols appear to represent a further or more complete maturation of some fraction of the organic material within the coal. These observations could have an impact in two areas. The first is in the area of coal structure, where immature, reactive regions have not been included in the structures considered at present. The second area of interest is the more practical one of conversions to coal liquids and pyrolytic tars. It seems clear that the hydrothermal pretreatment changes the coal in some manner that favorably affects the product quality substantially and, as in the CO/water liquefaction case, favorably affects the yields. The conversions of coals of lower rank, i.e., less mature coals, could particularly benefit in terms of both product quality and product quantity. The second portion of this project also shows important benefits to coal conversion technology. It deals with synthesizing catalysts designed to cleave the weak links in the coal structure and then linking these catalysts with the pretreatment methods in Task 2. The results show that highly dispersed catalysts can effectively be used to increase the yields of soluble material. An important aspect of highly dispersed catalysts are that they can effectively catalyze coal conversion even in poor liquefaction solvents, thus making them very attractive in processes such as coprocessing where inexpensive liquefaction media such as resids are used.
- Research Organization:
- SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC22-87PC79936
- OSTI ID:
- 6454554
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/PC/79936-T1; ON: DE93012864
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
COAL
HEAT TREATMENTS
COAL LIQUEFACTION
CATALYSTS
YIELDS
MOLYBDENUM SULFIDES
CATALYTIC EFFECTS
CHEMICAL BONDS
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
CLEAVAGE
HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION
IMPREGNATION
ORGANIC SOLVENTS
ORGANOMETALLIC COMPOUNDS
PROGRESS REPORT
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHALCOGENIDES
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DOCUMENT TYPES
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
KINETICS
LIQUEFACTION
MATERIALS
MICROSTRUCTURE
MOLYBDENUM COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
REACTION KINETICS
REFRACTORY METAL COMPOUNDS
SOLVENTS
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
010405* - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Hydrogenation & Liquefaction