TITLE: Coal Liquefaction with sup 13 C Labelled Carbon Monoxide.

AUTHOR: S. A. Farnum;   A. C. Wolfson;   D. J. Miller;   G. E. Gaides;   D. D. Messick.

INST.  AUTHOR: North Dakota Univ., Grand Forks. Energy Research Center.

SPONSOR: Department of Energy, Washington, DC.

LANGUAGE: English

PUB.  TYPE: Technical Report

PUB.  COUNTRY: United States

SOURCE: Department of Energy [DE],  Nov 84,  7p.

NTIS ORDER NO.: DE85002882/INW

NOTES: 189. national meeting of the American Chemical Society, Miami, FL, USA, 28 Apr 1985.

ABSTRACT:

The present study was designed to investigate low temperature reactions of three coals of differing rank, Big Brown Texas lignite, Wyodak subbituminous, and Powhatan bituminous coal, with pure CO. The conditions chosen also provide baseline data simulating the first stage in a two-stage liquefaction process. Additional development of analytical methods insured that each part of the product could be examined for sup 13 C incorporation and the gases were more carefully analyzed for sup 13 C/ sup 12 C ratios in each gaseous carbonate-containing product by GC/MS. No sup 13 C incorporation into products other than CO sub 2 was detected after reactions of Big Brown Texas lignite, Wyodak subbituminous coal, or Powhatan bituminous coal with 50/50 sup 13 CO/CO at 300 degrees, 340 degrees, or 380 degrees C in recycle solvent for 1 hour. No evidence for a Fischer-Tropsch type mechanism, CO insertion, or carbonylation reactions was found. These data are consistent with a mechanism involving CO entering into the shift reaction with in situ water. The differing response of the coals can be explained by invoking coal ash liquefaction and shift catalysis and the amount of water intimately connected with each coal. The change in response by Powhatan at higher temperatures may be due to a shift mechanism initiated by water released from thermal reactions.  The success of low temperature CO liquefaction would not be unexpected if a shift rection mechanism were in operation since the equilibrium constant for the shift reaction favors H sub 2 and CO sub 2 at lower temperatures. 14 references. (ERA citation 10:017807)

REPORT  NUMBER: DOE/FE/60181-76;   CONF-850417-4

CONTRACT  NUMBER: FC21-83FE60181