Cooperative research in coal liquefaction. Final report, May 1, 1991--April 30, 1992

Extensive research continued on catalysts based on novel anion-treated (mainly sulfated) oxides and oxyhydroxides of iron [Fe{sub x}O{sub y}/SO{sub 4}]. In addition, sulfated oxides of tin as well as molybdenum promoted iron oxides were used. Incorporation of small amounts of sulfate, molybdate, or tungstate anions by wet precipitation/impregnation methods was found to increase the surface acidic character of iron oxides; more importantly, it reduced the grain sizes significantly with corresponding increases in specific surface areas. These anion-treated iron and tin oxides were more active for direct coal liquefaction and coal-heavy oil coprocessing than their untreated counterparts. With these catalyst systems, higher conversion levels are obtained as compared to the soluble precursors of iron and molybdenum at the same catalyst metalloading (3500 ppm iron and 50 ppm molybdenum with respect to coal). Sulfated iron oxides and oxyhydroxides were equally active as coal liquefaction catalysts. The sulfate, molybdate, and tungstate anions were found to have similar promotional effects on the properties and activities of iron oxides. One step in the synthesis of anion-treated iron and tin oxides is precipitation as hydroxides using either urea or ammonium hydroxide. The catalysts prepared using urea as a precipitation agent were more reproducible than those using ammonium, hydroxide in terms of activities and properties. These catalysts/catalyst precursors were characterized by several techniques to determine their physical (size and structure related) and chemical (acidity) properties. Sulfated and molybdated iron oxides were found to have grain sizes as small as 10-20 nm. An attempt was made to correlate the physicochemical properties of these catalysts with their activity for coal liquefaction