Catalytic liquefaction of coal with supercritical water/CO/solvent media

Abstract

This paper describes studies of the catalytic activity of cobalt molybdenum sulphide, cobalt molybdenum oxide, iron sulphate, iron acetate dibasic and H 2S during the reaction between supercritical CO and water, and during liquefaction of coal using supercritical CO-water-solvent mixtures. The kinetics of the water gas shift reaction was studied first and was found to be first order in all the catalysts studied. The activity of the catalysts decreased in the following order: cobalt molybdenum sulphide > cobalt molybdenum oxide > iron salts. The presence of toluene, tetralin, and THQ decreased the CO conversion on the cobalt catalysts but increased CO conversion in the presence of iron salts catalysts. Moderate coal conversion of toluene soluble products (25%–35%) were obtained in the presence of supercritical water and water/CO mixtures. Addition of organic solvents to a supercritical water/CO medium increased conversion of toluene soluble products to 70–80% for THQ, to 50–60% for tetralin, and to 35–40% for toluene. Addition of H 2S to the solvent/water/CO medium increased conversion to toluene soluble products even further. In the presence of H 2S/solvent/water/CO, the presence of catalysts had only a minor effect on coal conversion and were not required to achieve high coal conversions. The optimum operating conditions for an Illinois No. 6 coal were obtained using a H 2S/THQ/CO/water medium at 3600 psi, and 400 °C. Higher conversions were attained with a subbituminous Wyodak coal. These studies clearly demonstrate that high conversions to soluble products can be attained using a supercritical water/Co/solvent medium.