COAL SWELLING AND CO-PROCESSING

Herrin No. 6 coal and the filter cake cleaned product from Pittsburgh No. 8 coal were co-processed with a liquid produced from the mild gasification of Wyodak coal. The co-processing studies were conducted in tubing bomb reactors and in a batch autoclave under hydrogen pressure. The reactants were thermally pretreated under helium to induce coal swelling and promote catalyst dispersion. Ferrocene and iron pentacarbonyl were used as catalyst precursors for these studies and were sulfided in situ to generate the active forms of the iron catalyst. Iron pentacarbonyl was found to form the better catalyst for conversion of these coals. Conversion of the filter cake product was found to be enhanced by pretreatment with the mild gasification liquid, because this treatment caused the coal to swell and promoted uniform dispersion of the catalyst. Higher coal conversion was observed from co-processing Herrin No. 6 coal compared to the filter cake product. This indicates the Herrin No. 6 coal would be the preferred coal to use in a commercial process. There was improvement in the quality of the oil product from co-processing Herrin No. 6 coal compared to the mild-gasification liquid.