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U.S. Department of Energy
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Physical-property estimation for coal liquids

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6412970
Improved design of coal liquefaction facilities is dependent on the availability of accurate thermodynamic property estimation methods. However, since coal liquids are mixtures of a large number of pure components bound together in a complex heteroatomic group structure; traditional methods for estimating thermodynamic properties are often inapplicable. Three sets of physical properties correlations-Cavett (1962), Wilson (1981), and Starling (1980)-have been used in conjunction with the ASPEN simulator (MIT, 1981) to critically evaluate against experimental vapor-liquid equilibrium data the utility of ASPEN for simulating coal liquid separations. All three correlations were found to give close correspondence between predicted and experimental K-values for temperatures between 478 and 589 K at 13.89 MPa except for heavy boiling fractions. It was also found for the limited data examined from the SRC-II PDU vacuum flash unit that using Wilson's correlations with the Redlich-Kwong-Soave method in ASPEN predicts vapor mole fractions close to experimental results. The utility of ASPEN for coal liquids has thus been demonstrated. Examination of experimental data indicates that better boiling point characterization data, including improvements in measurements of specific gravity and molecular weight, may further improve simulation capabilities.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-26
OSTI ID:
6412970
Report Number(s):
CONF-821106-15; ON: DE83003483
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English