Desulfurization of Illinois coals with hydroperoxides of vegetable oils and alkali. Technical report, September 1--November 30, 1995

Organic sulfur is removed from coals by treatment with aqueous base, air, and vegetable oils with minimal loss of BTU. Such results were revealed during exploratory experiments on an ICCI funded project to remove organic sulfur from Illinois coals with hydroperoxides of vegetable oils. In fact, prewashing IBC-108 coal with dilute alkali prior to treating with linseed oil and air results in 26% removal of sulfur. This new method will be investigated by treating coals with alkali, impregnating coals with polyunsaturated oils, converting the oils to their hydroperoxides, and heating. Since these oils are relatively inexpensive and easily applied, this project could lead to a cost effective method for removing organic sulfur from coals. Moreover the oils are environmentally safe; they will produce no noxious products and will improve burning qualities of the solid products. During this first quarter the selection of base for pretreatment and extraction (Task 1) has been completed. NaOH is better than NH{sub 4}OH for the pretreatment and Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3} is better than NaOH for the oil extraction. About 40% of sulfur is removed from IBC-108 coal using 5% NaOH for pretreatment followed by linseed oil oxidation in air and Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3} extraction