Short Contact Time Direct Coal Liquefaction Using a Novel Batch Reactor

The primary objective of this research is to optimize the design and operation of the bench scale batch reactor (SCTBR) for studying direct coal liquefaction at short contact times (.01 to 10 minutes or longer) . An additional objective is to study the kinetics of direct coal liquefaction particularly at short reaction times. Both of these objectives have been nearly achieved, however this work has shown the great importance of the liquefaction solvent characteristics and the solvent-catalyst interaction on the liquefaction process. This has prompted us to do a preliminary investigation of solvents and the solvent-catalyst systems in coal liquefaction. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 1) Conversion vs time data have been extended to 5 coals of ranks from lignite to low volatile bituminous coal. A broad range of reaction rates have been observed with a maximum in the high volatile bituminous range. 2) A series of direct coal liquefaction runs have been made using a range of nitrogen containing solvents that given high liquefaction conversions of coal. These runs are now being analyzed. 3) The coalification process has been shown by TGA to go through an intermediate stage which may account for the greater reactivity of bituminous coals in the direct coal liquefaction process. 4) It was shown that coal rank can be accurately determined by thermogravimetric analysi