Continuous bench-scale slurry catalyst testing: Direct coal liquification of Rawhide sub-bituminous coal. Technical report, July 1995--December 1995

In 1994 extensive tests were conducted in the Exxon Research and Engineering Recycle Coal Liquefaction Unit (RCLU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The work conducted in 1994 explored a variety of dispersed iron molybdenum promoted catalyst systems for direct coal liquefaction of Rawhide subbituminus coal. The goal was to identify the preferred iron system. We learned that among the catalysts tested, all were effective; however, none showed a large process advantage over the others. In 1995, we tested dispersed molybdenum catalysts systems for direct coal liquefaction on a second subbituminous coal, Black Thunder. Catalyst properties are shown in Table 1. We also checked a molybdenum promoted iron case, as well as the impact of process variables, such as sulfur type, hydrogen treat rate, and catalyst addition rate, as shown in Table 2. In 1995, we ran 18 material balances over a 7 week period, covering 7 conditions. This report covers the 1995 operations and results