An investigation of the role of water on retrograde/condensation reactions and enhanced liquefaction yields

Abstract

Changes in coal structure that may occur during coal drying will be measured in order to determine the effects of coal drying on its reactivity toward liquefaction. Different methods for coal drying will be investigated to determine if drying can be accomplished without destroying coal reactivity toward liquefaction, thereby making coal drying a relatively economical and efficient method for coal pretreatment. Coal drying methods will include conventional thermal drying, microwave drying and chemical drying at low temperature. State-of-the-art solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques using combined rotation and multiple pulse spectroscopy (CRAMPS) and cross polarization with magic-angle spinning (CP/MAS) will be employed: (1) to measures changes in coal structure brought about by the different methods of drying and by low temperature oxidation, and (2) to obtain direct measurements of changes in the aromatic hydrogen-to-carbon ratio of the solid/semisolid material formed or remaining during pretreatment and the initial stages of liquefaction. The objectives for this quarter were to begin coal drying experiments using thermal, microwave, and chemical methods, and to begin coal liquefaction experiments on the dried coals. Three additional coal samples have been acquired. These are a Black Thunder Mine coal acquired from Arco Coal Co, and a Texas subC and Illinois No. 6 hvC acquired from the DOE coal sample bank at Penn State. The samples are listed as DECS-1 and DECS-2, respectively in the PSU sample bank. The ultimate and proximate analyses for all the samples are given in Table 1. Work on each of the subtasks is described in separate paragraphs.