Production and screening of carbon products precursors from coal. Quarterly report, October 1--December 31, 1997

For this quarter, West Virginia University has completed the extraction of the Hydrocarbon Technology, Inc. (HTI) O-6 bottoms coal product. Recall that the material was vacuum distilled earlier at the Koppers Technical Center in Harmarville, PA to remove liquefaction solvent and other low-boiling substances. There are now approximately 25 kg (about 55 pounds) of extracted coal product available for further testing and evaluation. A portion of the extracted HTI coal liquid was converted into green coke in a laboratory-scale atmospheric still coker. The ash content of 0.7 wt% may be too high for the extracted coal liquid to be used directly in carbon products. To reduce the ash-reforming constituents further, a series of filtrations was performed using a Millipore pressure filter apparatus. Table 2 lists the results of the ash determinations for the coal material after filtration through filters of different particle retention capability. Efforts are now being pursued to remove the ash forming material by selective extraction