Effect of pretreating of host oil on coprocessing. Final report

A petroleum vacuum resid (1,000 F+) was pretreated by catalytic hydrogenation and hydrocracking reactions and the pretreated resids (host oils) were then coprocessed with coal. The fraction of coal converted to soluble products and the yield of pentane-soluble oils were determined after coprocessing. The phenolic oxygen concentration of the oil product provided a means for estimating the fraction of coal liquids in the products; oils originating from coal had much higher concentrations of phenolic oxygen than those originating from petroleum. Resids that were pretreated by mild temperature hydrogenation reactions, where cracking was suppressed, became better host oils; when these pretreated resids were coprocessed with coal, more of the mixture was converted to tetrahydrofuran-soluble products. Depending on the pretreatment, the pentane-soluble oil yields following thermal coprocessing were either significantly lower or slightly higher than the oil yields obtained with untreated resid. The yield of oils was strongly affected by the concentration of coal in the feed. The presence of small amounts, less than 33% of coal, enhanced the conversion of petroleum resid to oils during coprocessing, although the increases were small. 91 refs