RECENT ADVANCES IN

DIREECT COAL
LIQUEFACTION

Presented by:
Muhammad Naqi Shah
Roll No: CH-22/2010-2011
RECENT ADVANCES IN DIREECT COAL
LIQUEFACTION

Presentation includes
 Introduction
 Coal & its Classification
 Influencing factors for DCL
 Effects of coal pre-treatment on DCL
 Multi-stage DCL process
 DCL catalyst
 Conclusion
 INTRODUCTION

Importance of coal liquefaction

Rapid increase in petroleum demand
Declining reserves of petroleum oils
Processes of coal liquefaction
Indirect Coal Liquefaction (ICL)
Direct Coal Liquefaction (DCL)
Direct Coal Liquefaction (DCL)
coal+solvent+catalyst+hydrogen gas
450-500 C under 15-30 MPa
 Table.1 Summary of major DCL process
developed around the world
Capacity (t/d)
Process Reactor
Country Catalyst Year
SRC-I Coal slurry dissolver — 6 1974
SRC-II Coal slurry dissolver — 50/25 1974-1981
EDS Entrained bed Ni/Moc 250 1979-1983
USA
H-Coal Fluidized bed Co-Mo/Al2O3 600 1979-1982
CTSL Fluidized bed Ni/Mo 2 1985-1992
HTI Suspended bed GelCatTM 3 1990s
Red- muda,
IGOR Fixed bed b 200 1981-1987
Germany Ni-Mo/Al2O3
PYROSOL Counter-current — 6 1977-1988
Fe-baseda,
BCL Fixed bedb b 50 1986-1990
Japan Ni-Mo/Al2O3
NEDOL Fluidized bed Nature pyrite 150 1996-1998
Stirred tank-typea,
UK LSE — 2.5 1983-1995
fluidized bedb
USSR CT-5 — Mo 7 1986-1990
Shenhua I Suspended bed Fe-based 6 2002-
China Shenhua II Suspended bed Fe-based 3,000 2004-
Table.2 . The operating parameters and
experiment results of some major DCL processes.

Process HTI IGOR NEDOL Shenhua

Coal Shenhua Xianfeng lignite Shenhua Shenhua

Temperature ( °C) 440~450 470 465 455

Pressure (MPa) 17 30 18 19
Space velocity (t/m3/h) 0.24 0.60 0.36 0.70
Conversion (%,daf coal) 93.5 97.5 89.7 91.7
C4+oils (%, daf coal) 67.2 58.6 52.8 61.4
Residues (%, daf coal)a 13.4 11.7 28.1 14.7

Hydrogen consumption (% daf coal) 8.7 11.2 6.1 5.5

a
Including ash, spent catalyst and un-converted coal
 COAL AND ITS CLASSIFICATION

Rank of the coal

Peat lignite sub-bituminous
anthracite bituminous
Constitutes of coal
I. Fixed carbon
II. volatile carbon
III. other constitutes
 COAL LIQUEFACTION CATALYSIS

Self catalysis
Mineral present in coal (pyrite)
Catalyst used
Heterogeneous catalyst are used so
that, separation product from catalyst is
simple
Porous structure of catalyst
 INFLUENCING FACTORS FOR DCL

Temperature:
 Cracking of coal at elevated temperature
 Enhance free radical formation
 Enhance free radical reaction
 Influencing temperature range is 350-
800 C
Solvent:
 To stabilize the free radicals by donating
hydrogen
 Promote the cracking of coal macromolecules
Continued…
 Facilitatethe heat and mass transfer for
coal liquefaction reaction
 Classification : specific, non-specific,
degrading, reactive
 Used solvent: tetra line,
tetrahydrofluoranthene (4HFL)
Continued..

Pressure & atmosphere

 High pressure beneficial as: keep the
solvent and products in liquid phase
prevent coke build up on reactor wall
and catalyst surface
 Range 15-30 MPa
 Preferred atmospheric are nitrogen (N2)
and hydrogen (H2)
 EFFECTS OF COAL PRE-
TREATMENT ON DCL
Swelling treatment
 Enhance coal priority
 Improve the dispersion of catalyst onto the coal
structure
 Pre-swollen in tetra line for 4 hr at temperature
from room temp to 160 C
Thermal & hydro-thermal treatment
 Thermal treatment under drying in not
beneficial
 Thermal treatment under vacuum and steam is
beneficial
Continued…
 Treatment in hot compressed water (hydro-
thermal) is also beneficial

Multistage DCL process

 Multigas (mostly two stages) process is
beneficial
 Higher conversion and higher oil yield
 15 MPa, 10 wt% Fe-10 wt% Ni
 380 C for 15 min in 1st stage
 450 C for 105 min in 2nd stage
 DCL CATALYST

Catalyst types
Iron based, Co, Mo, Rn etc
Loading amount, the preparation
method, dispersion state, solvents, coal-
containing minerals
 CONCLUSION

Overall, although many commercialized

processes have been developed in the
U.S, Europe, Japan and china, the
optimization of the operating conditions for
these DCL processes is still the focus for
many studies
In addition to the common Fe based
catalyst, Mo,Co and Ru as well as
SO42-/MxOy, solid acids were also
demonstrated effective for DCL