TITLE: Novel Experimental Studies for Coal Liquefaction. Quarterly Progress Report, October 1-December 31, 1985.

AUTHOR: G. Holder;   Y. T. Shah;   J. W. Tierney.

INST.  AUTHOR: Pittsburgh Univ., PA.

SPONSOR: Department of Energy, Washington, DC.

LANGUAGE: English

PUB.  TYPE: Technical Report

PUB.  COUNTRY: United States

SOURCE: Department of Energy [DE],  1985,  18p.

NTIS ORDER NO.: DE86007306/INW

ABSTRACT:

Research is conducted under the following two tasks: (1) thermal behavior of slurry reactors used for indirect coal liquefaction; and (2) coal liquefaction under supercritical conditions. For task one experimental work was concentrated on examining the second step of the two step process - the hydrogenolysis of methyl formate using a Cu-Cr (United Catalyst G-89) catalyst. Some trial runs were made to determine approximate reaction rates. Results are presented. At 100 deg C and 400 psig the reaction rate is low. Raising the pressure to 800 psig or the temperature to 120 deg C gives good reaction rates. The conversion of methyl formate to methanol should be essentially complete at equilibrium according to calculations based on the equilibrium constant for the hydrogenolysis reaction. There has been some concern that when the hydrogenolysis reaction is carried out in the same reactor as the carbonylation reaction, the CO present may have a deleterious effect on the hydrogenation catalyst. A batch run was made to determine if this effect would significantly reduce the catalyst performance. The results show that the presence of CO does not affect the conversion of formate to methanol. The objective of task two is to measure mass transfer rates for naphthalene extraction by carbon dioxide to enable the investigators to determine how mass transfer coefficients vary with pressure, flow rate, and bed height, since these parameters will influence the design of extraction or reaction processes which utilize supercritical fluids. This past quarter was spent in redesigning the experimental apparatus. 12 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs. (ERA citation 11:019416)

REPORT  NUMBER: DOE/PC/71257-T5

CONTRACT  NUMBER: FG22-84PC71257