Role of non-ferrous coal minerals and by-product metallic wastes in coal liquefaction. Technical progress report, 1 March 1980-31 May 1980

Abstract

This report describes work done in a study of the role of coal minerals and by-product metallic wastes in coal liquefaction. The thermal behavior of various minerals and metallic by-product wastes was evaluated by thermal gravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis in the presence of hydrogen, nitrogen, and air. The CPDU was operated for 220 hours to obtain baseline data and provide information on the catalytic activity of Robena pyrite in solvent hydrogenation and coal liquefaction. A number of minerals were screened for catalytic activity toward coal liquefaction in a tubing-bomb reactor. The catalytic activity of the minerals was assessed by comparing the product distributions both in the presence of minerals and their absence. The use of a Bronson Sonifier was initiated in March to accelerate and improve the solvent separation technique. The addition of lime to the reaction mixture practically killed the liquefaction reaction. The addition of dolomite, rutile, illite, quartz, zircon, and calcite to the reaction mixture showed no significant improvement over that of a no additive run. The addition of zinc oxide and ilmenite showed slight improvement. Robena pyrite and Co-Mo-Al showed significant improvement in coal conversion and production of benzene solubles and gases. Iron oxide (Fe/sub 2/O/sub 3/) gave the highest conversion of coal and production of benzene solubles among all the minerals tested so far.