Low-rank coal structure elucidations with ruthenium tetroxide

Conference · Fri Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6024573

Olson, E S; Diehl, J W; Froehlich, M L; Miller, D J

The goal of these studies was to elucidate the structural features of coals which are believed to be important in conversion processes. Of special interest are the nature of the hydroaromatic groups and the bridging groups between aromatic moieties, because of their roles in thermal cleavage and depolymerization processes and the hydrogen shuttling which occurs during the depolymerization and stabilization of cleavage products. The first objective was the development of new methods for the isolation or solubilization of the aliphatic groups in the coal, which may then be related to these hydroaromatic systems and bridging groups. We have successfully used ruthenium tetroxide in a two phase solvent system with a phase transfer catalyst to selectively oxidize the aromatic groups. The oxidation of a North Dakota lignite with ruthenium tetroxide with the phase transfer catalyst proceeded rapidly at ambient temperature giving carbon dioxide and carboxylic acid products which were converted to methyl esters by diazomethane for qualitative analysis using GC and GC/MS. A very complex mixture of aliphatic mono and polycarboxylic acids and aromatic polycarboxylic acids was formed in the reaction. Oxiranepolycarboxylic acids and keto acids were not found. An ion trap mass spectrometer was found to be useful in these analyses since an M+1 peak was found for many of the esters which normally do not exhibit any molecular ion. 8 refs., 6 tabs.

• Research Organization: North Dakota Univ., Grand Forks (USA). Energy Research Center
• DOE Contract Number: FC21-83FE60181
• OSTI ID: 6024573
• Report Number(s): DOE/FE/60181-166; CONF-860425-3; ON: DE86003207
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010600* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Properties & Composition
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
BROWN COAL
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
CATALYTIC EFFECTS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTION YIELD
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHROMATOGRAPHY
COAL
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
INFORMATION
LIGNITE
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
MATERIALS
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
REFRACTORY METAL COMPOUNDS
RUTHENIUM COMPOUNDS
RUTHENIUM OXIDES
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SPECTROSCOPY
STRUCTURAL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
YIELDS