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H-Coal process improvement study: bench-unit baseline run with preheater/reactor

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5967326
HRI is investigating the thermal dissolution of coal and its effects on the mechanism of coal liquefaction in an H-Coal system. The two-stage coal liquefaction system consists of a coal slurry preheater which is essentially a short residence time reactor and a liquefaction reactor which can be regarded as a catalytic-hydrogenation-reactor. HRI designed the preheater and installed it in the bench unit which will be used for all the studies in this program. The preheater design and unit modifications are discussed in this report. The objective of the run reported here was to obtain baseline data with the preheater integrated in the bench unit system. Operating conditions and results are summarized and compared with those of previous bench runs at similar operating conditions without a preheater, and also to previous PDU operations at similar conditions. These comparisons were made to determine the effect a preheater has on product yields and product quality. Based on comparing data from this single experimental run to estimates from previous runs extrapolated to the same conditions by correlations, we conclude a preheater tends to increase heavy liquid yields with more residual oil and a higher proportion of heavy distillates in the distillate product. However, more experimental data at comparable operating conditions, with and without a preheater, are needed to confirm this observation. The experimental run closely simulated the conditions of PDU Run 5, which also included a preheater; however, product yields differed by as much as 6 W %. The higher slurry space velocities in the preheater for this run correspond to lower slurry residence times, which resulted in lower yields of lighter fractions than obtained in PDU Run 5.
Research Organization:
Hydrocarbon Research, Inc., Lawrenceville, NJ (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-77ET10152
OSTI ID:
5967326
Report Number(s):
DOE/ET/10152-T2; ON: DE82002572
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English