Biological upgrading of coal liquids. Final report

A large number of bacterial enrichments have been developed for their ability to utilize nitrogen and sulfur in coal liquids and the model compound naphtha. These bacteria include the original aerobic bacteria isolated from natural sources which utilize heteroatom compounds in the presence of rich media, aerobic nitrogen-utilizing bacteria and denitrifying bacteria. The most promising isolates include Mix M, a mixture of aerobic bacteria; ER15, a pyridine-utilizing isolate; ERI6, an aniline-utilizing isolate and a sewage sludge isolate. Culture optimization experiments have led to these bacteria being able to remove up to 40 percent of the sulfur and nitrogen in naphtha and coal liquids in batch culture. Continuous culture experiments showed that the coal liquid is too toxic to the bacteria to be fed without dilution or extraction. Thus either semi-batch operation must be employed with continuous gas sparging into a batch of liquid, or acid extracted coal liquid must be employed in continuous reactor studies with continuous liquid flow. Isolate EN-1, a chemical waste isolate, removed 27 percent of the sulfur and 19 percent of the nitrogen in fed batch experiments. Isolate ERI5 removed 28 percent of the nitrogen in coal liquid in 10 days in fed batch culture. The sewage sludge isolate removed 22.5 percent of the sulfur and 6.5 percent of the nitrogen from extracted coal liquid in continuous culture, and Mix M removed 17.5 percent of the nitrogen from medium containing extracted coal liquid. An economic evaluation has been prepared for the removal of nitrogen heteroatom compounds from Wilsonville coal liquid using acid extraction followed by fermentation. Similar technology can be developed for sulfur removal. The evaluation indicates that the nitrogen heteroatom compounds can be removed for $0.09/lb of coal liquid treated