Japanese coal

Some of the principal Japanese producers of benzene are Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Nippon Steel Chemical Co., Ltd., Sanyo Petrochemical Ltd., and Idemitsu Kosan Ltd. Until 1967, the main source of Japanese benzene was coal-based. Today, approximately 40—45% of benzene production in Japan is based on pyrolysis gasoline (74), about 40% catalytic reformate, and the remainder coke oven light oil and thermal hydrodealkylation. 

The Japanese Direct Iron Ore Smelting (DIOS) process. This process produces molten iron directly with coal and sinter feed ore. A 500 ton per day pilot plant was started up in October, 1993 and the designed production rates were attained as a short term average. Data generated is being used to determine economic feasibility on a commercial scale. 

Some cokeless technologies in use or under development include the Japanese direct iron ore smelting (DIOS) process, in which molten iron is produced directly with coal and sinter feed ore, the HIsmelt process, where ore fines and coal are used to achieve a production rate of 8 t/h using ore directly in the smelter, and the Corex process, which has an integral coal desulfurizing step, making it amenable to a variety of coal types.14... 

Location, Geology and General Characteristics of Japanese Coals... 

The properties of Japanese coal and the fields can be characterized, in comparison with those of the continental type, as follows ... 

Five coal materials were used in this study. These were Miike, Taiheiyo, Hikishima (Japanese coals), Morwell (Australian) and Bukit Asam (Indonesian) coals. The proximate and ultimate analyses of these coals are shown in Table 1. All of catalysts were powdered before... 

In a patent on biological desulfurization [100] of petroleum/coal, only the use of whole cell biocatalysts was claimed. The biocatalysts included microorganisms belonging to the genus Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium, Enterobacter, Aeromonas, Bacillus or Corynebacterium. The desulfurization pathway (sulfur-specific vs. destructive) was not specified. The Japanese patents No. JP2071936C and JP7103379B seem to be equivalent patents. 

Nishikawa, T. (1941). Absorbtion of coal dust from the respiratory tract in rabbits suffering from pneumonia (in Japanese). Kyoto Igakkai Zasshi 38 194 cited in Nagaishi (1972). 

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, workers in the paraffin refining, shale oil, and coal tar industries had high incidences of skin cancer. A possible cause emerged during the period 1915-1918 when Japanese scientists discovered that painting the ears of rabbits and mice with coal tar extracts produced tumors, some of which were malignant (Yamagiwa and Ichikawa, 1918). 

Two of the earliest observations that exposure of humans to certain chemicals or substances is related to an increased incidence of cancer were made independently by two English physicians, John Hill in 1771 and Sir Percival Pott in 1776. Hill observed an increased incidence of nasal cancer among snuff users, while Pott observed that chimney sweeps had an increased incidence of scrotal cancer. Pott attributed this to topical exposure to soot and coal tar. It was not until nearly a century and a half later in 1915 when two Japanese scientists, K. Yamagiwa and K. J. Itchikawa, substantiated Pott s observation by demonstrating that multiple topical applications of coal tar to rabbit skin produced skin carcinomas. This experiment is important for two major... 

The Japanese government is also going to put some money into the program, but they will be in a minority position. I think it is quite significant that the private industry in Japan came up with 20 million. In addition, Rural Coal has joined our project at the 5 million level. 

Figure 3. Dependence of apparent coal volume fraction at equilibrium swelling on the carbon content (% C, daf), for various American and Japanese coals. Curve fits the Purdue data (American coals only). Experimental values of vit app for pyridine vapor swelling at 25°C 30-40 mesh (unextracted coals) ( ) Sanada and Honda (1966), 30-60 mesh (Q).

The molecular weights per cluster (Table VII) are in the same range of values as found by others for products prepared by other methods (24,25) and also by Makabe and Ouchi using NaOH ethanol on Japanese coals (11,12). 

In Japan, NKK was the first company to use petroleum coke as the source for metallurgical coke making in 1967. Since then, petroleum coke has been utilized to increase carbon content and decrease ash content of coal blends used by Japanese iron and steel companies. This report includes the following subjects ... 

With a view toward the effective utilization of carbon sources, Nippon Kokan K.K. successfully utilized petroleum coke for the first time in Japan in 1967, taking advantage of the lower ash content relative to that in coals. Now that petroleum coke is used for coke-making in the Japanese coke industry as shown in Figure 1, its application may be considered as an established technology. The ratio of its use relative to coking coals is, however, still at the very low level of 1.0%. Table I shows results of examinations... 

Blending Limit of Petroleum Coke, The blending limit of petroleum coke is considered to be about 5% as already mentioned above. This can be explained from the current average value of MF of about 200 to 500 DDPM for coal blends in the Japanese coking industry. Figure 13 shows limit quantities of added petroleum coke for various values of fluidity for the base coals. In the determination of these limit quantities, the quantity of added petroleum coke with which the fluidity of the coal blend decreased to below 200 DDPM under the effect of this blending was deemed as the limit. 

Miyazu, T. et al., "Evaluation Method of Binding Materials for Coke Making", paper presented at Japan Coal Science Conference, Fukuoka, 1981 (Japanese). 

Similarly, PZ pitch as precursor for HPCF was replaced by other mesophase pitches (12). At this point in time, as is well-known, Singer (13) and Lewis (14) of the Union Carbide Corporation developed similar methods. Mesophase carbon fiber progressed more rapidly in the USA than in Japan because Japanese defense and aerospace needs were less demanding. Recently, however, the drive toward higher-added-value products from the heavy fractions of coal and petroleum has intensified, and pitch-based carbon fibers, including HPCF, are now the subjects of extensive investigation in many Japanese laboratories. 

---