Effect of iron catalysts on hyrogenation pathways in direct coal liquefaction

Conference · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:370418

Anderson, R K; Clements, W J; Given, E N; Derbyshire, F J ^[1]

---

1. Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (United States)

The effect of a commercially available, high surface area manometer size iron oxide (SFIO) catalyst on the pathway by which hydrogen is added to a subbituminous coal during direct liquefaction was studied under a variety of conditions. This unique, iron oxide was prepared by pyrolyzing volatilized iron carbonyl to produce a finely divided product characterized as {gamma}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} having a surface area of {approximately}300 m{sup 2}/g and a particle size of 1-3 nm. Liquefying slurries of Wyodak coal in tetralin (0.5 hrs, 415{degrees}C, 2.25 tetralin/dry coal, 6.89 MPa H{sub 2} cold) containing 1.2 wt% Fe resulted in an increase in overall coal conversion (77 to 83%) with most of the increase in product being in formation of THF soluble-pentane insoluble product. Adding an excess of sulfur to convert the iron to pyrrhotite further increased conversion to 85% and the THF soluble-pentane insoluble fraction also increased. The presence of catalyst increased the amount of hydrogen added to the product as H{sub 2} relative to the amount from tetralin via the H-donor pathway. In the absence of catalyst, 60% was added as H{sub 2}; adding 1.2% Fe increased H{sub 2} addition to 67%; adding 3 mol S/mol Fe to 1.2% Fe further increased H{sub 2} addition to 82%.

• OSTI ID: 370418
• Report Number(s): CONF-960376--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
CATALYSTS
CATALYTIC EFFECTS
COAL LIQUEFACTION
IRON OXIDES
PARTICLE SIZE
PYRRHOTITE
SLURRIES
SUBBITUMINOUS COAL
SURFACE AREA
TETRALIN