Advanced concepts in coal liquefaction: Optimization of reactor configuration in coal liquefaction. Final report

Abstract

The overall objective of this Project was to find the ways to effectively reduce the cost of coal liquids to about dollar 25 per barrel of crude oil equivalent. The work described herein is primarily concerned with the testing at the laboratory scale of three reactor configuration concepts, namely (1) a fixed-bed plug-flow reactor as a ``finishing reactor`` in coal liquefaction, (2) three-stage well-mixed reactors in series, and (3) interstage stream concentration/product separation. The three reactor configurations listed above were tested during this project using a 20 cc tubing microreactor, a fixed-bed plug flow reactor, and a two-stage modified Robinson-Mahoney reactor system. The reactor schemes were first evaluated based on theoretical modelling studies, then experimentally evaluated at the microautoclave level and laboratory scale continuous operations. The fixed-bed ``finishing reactor`` concept was evaluated in both the upflow and the downflow modes of operation using a partially converted coal-solvent slurry as feed. For most of the testing of concepts at the microautoclave level, simulated coal, recycle oil, and slurry feedstocks were either specially prepared (to represent a specific state of coal/resid conversion) and/or obtained from HRI`s other ongoing bench-scale and PDU scale coal liquefaction experiments. The three-stage continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR) and interstage product stream separation/concentration concepts were tested using a simulated three-stage CSTR system by employing a laboratory-scale ebullated-bed system and a modified version of the HRI`s existing Robinson-Mahoney fixed catalyst basket reactor system. This testing was conducted as a fourteen day long continuous run, divided into four Conditions to allow for a comparison of the new three-stage CSTR and interstage product concentration concepts with a two-stage CSTR baseline configuration.