Recent Developments in Coal Liquefaction at the Wilsonville Advanced Coal Liquefaction Research and Development Facility

摘要

The results of the two most recently completed runs at the Wilsonville Advanced Coal Liquefaction Research and Development Facility are presented. In Run 255, initial screening of operating conditions for the liquefaction of a Texas lignite was completed. A smooth startup was achieved by using a lignite and bituminous coal blend as the initial feed stock. Iron oxide in combination with dimethyl disulfide, a sulfiding agent, was used as a slurry catalyst to promote lignite conversion. The use of a ROSE-SR solids rejections unit was demonstrated for the first time for separating the mineral matter and unconverted coal from the resid, all three of which were lignite derived. Amocat 1B, an experimental bimodal catalyst, was tested in the first stage reactor as a possible catalyst for lignite conversion. Despite some operational difficulties, this run has provided guidelines for future process optimization tests with low-rank coals. In Run 256, a low-ash Ohio No. 6 bituminous coal was tested in the catalytic-catalytic close-coupled integrated mode, first using Shell 324 unimodal catalyst in both stages and then an aged Shell 317 bimodal catalyst. A direct comparison of the effects of Shell 324 to Shell 317 was made. Also, the effects of two different mines of coal were studied when the coal mine type was changed from the original Holmes mine Ohio No. 6 to Crooksville mine Ohio No. 6.