Direct liquefaction proof-of-concept program: POC bench option run 01 (227-90). Final report

Abstract

This report presents the results of bench-scale work, Bench Run PB-01, conducted under the DOE Proof of Concept-Bench Option Program in direct coal liquefaction at Hydrocarbon Technologies, Inc. in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The Bench Run PB-01 was the first of nine runs planned under the POC Bench Option Contract between the US DOE and Hydrocarbon Technologies, Inc. The primary goal of this bench run was to evaluate the most successful of the process improvements concepts, evolving out of the earlier CMSL Project, for conventional direct liquefaction as well as coprocessing of a sub-bituminous Black Thunder mine coal with waste organics such as waste plastics and heavy resid. The interstage separation of light ends and gases was indeed found to reduce the overall light gas-make from the liquefaction process. The organic waste feeds such as mixed plastics and vacuum resid, employed during Bench Run PB-01, in combined processing with coal, resulted in making the overall process more hydrogen efficient by virtue of reducing the light gas make and also decreasing the hydrogen consumption from the process, while at the same time improving the yields and quality of the distillate products. A definite synergy was found during the combined processing of coal with mixtures of vacuum resid and mixed waste plastics. The application of an all dispersed catalyst conversion reactor resulted in higher feed throughput at equivalent process performance, but also necessitated the use of an in-line hydrotreater for improving the quality of IBP-400{degrees}C distillate products. The combination of HTI`s iron gel catalyst and Molyvan-A was found very effective in achieving high levels of process performance; although, in recycled form, these catalysts were not as effective as the freshly added precursors.