Flash hydropyrolysis process for conversion of lignite to liquid and gaseous products

Conference · Fri Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1965

OSTI ID:7352285

Steinberg, M; Sheehan, T V; Lee, Q

The Flash Hydropyrolysis Process converts coal to liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons directly by rapidly heating coal with preheated H/sub 2/ to reaction temperatures followed by rapid cooling. A preliminary evaluation of the design and the economics of the process is presented. On the basis of experimental bench-scale experiments in a /sup 3///sub 4/'' tubular reactor, up to 25 percent of the carbon in lignite can be converted to liquids (15 percent benzene and 10 percent oils) and 35 percent to light hydrocarbon gases (CH/sub 4/ and C/sub 2/H/sub 6/) with the remaining 40 percent as char and unreacted carbon. A quasi-entrained flow tubular reactor design is assumed for estimating purposes. The modular process design includes coal preparation, hydropyrolysis, liquid and gaseous product separation, char separation, hydrogen recycle and synthesis by char gasification, and liquid and gaseous end-product modification. The end-products can be marketed as aromatic and olefinic chemical feedstocks and high-Btu pipeline gas, or the process can be integrated with the feed and product streams of a modern automotive distillate fuel refinery. Approximately 40,000 bbl/day of benzene and light oil and the equivalent of about 30,000 bbl/day of methane and ethylene can be produced from 25,000 T/D of lignite feed in a plant having a total investment of $574 million. The overall thermal efficiency is 86.8 percent. The economic evaluation indicates a reasonable return on the venture capital investment comparable to similar types of chemical feedstock and distillate fuel operations.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, N.Y. (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7352285
• Report Number(s): BNL-20915; CONF-760401-5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010403 -- Coal & Coal Products-- Hydrogenation-- (-1987)
010404* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Gasification
010405 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Hydrogenation & Liquefaction
010406 -- Coal & Coal Products-- Pyrolysis & Cracking-- (-1987)
ALKANES
AROMATICS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BENZENE
BROWN COAL
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHARS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COAL
COAL GASIFICATION
COAL LIQUEFACTION
CRYOGENIC FLUIDS
DECOMPOSITION
DESIGN
ECONOMICS
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUIPMENT
ETHANE
FLASH HYDROPYROLYSIS PROCESS
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
GASIFICATION
HIGH BTU GAS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGENATION
INVESTMENT
LIGNITE
LIQUEFACTION
METHANE
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PRODUCTION
PYROLYSIS