Oils from coal

With the development of "coal oil" from coke-making and other coal processing, a similar product-bitumen-became available. Though useful for many, if not all, of the same purposes, bitumen is not identical, and in many cases, not compatible with asphalt, and care should be taken in chemical services not to mix them. For instance, hot asphalt should not be used with a bitumastic primer, nor if the supply of hot asphalt runs out before a job is completed, should it be finished with a bitumen formulation. 

Coal oil for lamps was already being produced when the Drake discovery well was drilled in 1859. In 1846 Abraham Gesner prepared coal oil from coal by thermal decomposition. Sperm oil was becoming expensive and by 1859 there were about 60 coal-distillation plants in the United States. Within a few years of the Drake discovery most of these plants had been converted to petroleum processing. 

Worldwide fossil-fuel resources (shale oils, coals, oils from tar sands, petroleum, natural gas, natural gas liquids) >2 X 10 > 1 X 10 ... 

Young of Scotland found a way to distill coal oil from coal and shale. Around 1851, Samuel M. Kier, a Pittsburgh pharmacist, enlisted the support of J. C. Booth, a chemist, to see if kerosene or coal oil could be distilled from crude oil. The experiments were a success and found immediate application in the kerosene market. Kier also believed that oil was a cure for many illnesses. 

Most coal-tar chemicals are recovered from coproduct coke ovens. Since the primary product of the ovens is metallurgical coke, production of coal chemicals from this source is highly dependent on the level of activity in the steel industry. In past years most large coke producers operated thein own coproduct recovery processes. Because of the decline in the domestic steel industry, the recent trend is for independent refiners to coUect cmde coal tars and light oils from several producers and then separate the marketable products. 

By the middle of the nineteenth century it was realized, both in England and in the United States, that kerosene, or coal oil, distilled from coal, could produce a luminous combustion flame. Commercialization was rapid. By the time of the U.S. Civil War, /yr (23,000 gal/yr) of lamp oil was... 

Shale Oil. In the United States, shale oil, or oil derivable from oil shale, represents the largest potential source of Hquid hydrocarbons that can be readily processed to fuel Hquids similar to those derived from natural petroleum. Some countries produce Hquid fuels from oil shale. There is no such industry in the United States although more than 50 companies were producing oil from coal and shale in the United States in 1860 (152,153), and after the oil embargo of 1973 several companies reactivated shale-oil process development programs (154,155). Petroleum supply and price stabiHty has since severely curtailed shale oil development. In addition, complex environmental issues (156) further prohibit demonstration of commercial designs. 

M. E. Frank and B. K. Schmid, "Economic Evaluation and Process Design of a Coal—Oil—Gas (COG) Refinery," paper presented at Symposium on Conceptual Plantsfor the Production of Synthetic Fuels From Coal, AIChE 65th Annual Meeting, New York, Nov. 26, 1972. 

Production of synthetic fuels from coal, oil shale, and methane involves changing the chemical stmcture of the raw material, especially the... 

Petroleum and Goal. The alkanolarnines have found wide use in the petroleum industry. The ethanolamines are used as lubricants and stabilizers in drilling muds. Reaction products of the ethan olamines and fatty acids are used as emulsion stabilizers, chemical washes, and bore cleaners (168). Oil recovery has been enhanced through the use of ethan olamine petroleum sulfonates (169—174). OH—water emulsions pumped from wells have been demulsifted through the addition of triethanolarnine derivatives. Alkanolarnines have been used in recovering coal in aqueous slurries and as coal—oil mix stabilizers (175—177). 

The principal sources of feedstocks in the United States are the decant oils from petroleum refining operations. These are clarified heavy distillates from the catalytic cracking of gas oils. About 95% of U.S. feedstock use is decant oil. Another source of feedstock is ethylene process tars obtained as the heavy byproducts from the production of ethylene by steam cracking of alkanes, naphthas, and gas oils. There is a wide use of these feedstocks in European production. European and Asian operations also use significant quantities of coal tars, creosote oils, and anthracene oils, the distillates from the high temperature coking of coal. European feedstock sources are 50% decant oils and 50% ethylene tars and creosote oils. 

Supercritical fluid solvents have been tested for reactive extractions of liquid and gaseous fuels from heavy oils, coal, oil shale, and biomass. In some cases the solvent participates in the reactions, as in the hydrolysis of coal and heavy oils with water. Related applications include conversion of cellulose to glucose in water, dehgnincation of wood with ammonia, and liquefaction of lignin in water. 

FIG. 27-17 Circular burner for pulverized coal, oil, or gas. (From Marks Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, 8th ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978.)... 

Venmri scrubbers have been applied to control PM emissions from utility, industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers fired with coal, oil, wood, and liquid waste. They have also been applied to control emission sources in the chemical, mineral products, wood, pulp and paper, rock products, and asphalt manufacrnring industries lead, aluminum, iron and steel, and gray iron production industries and to municipal solid waste incinerators. Typically, venturi scrubbers are applied where it is necessary to obtain high collection efficiencies for fine PM. Thus, they are applicable to controlling emission sources with high concentrations of submicron PM. 

The United States became the world s first producer of deep crude oil from an oil well when in 1859 Colonel Edwin Drake successfully used a pipe drilled into the ground to obtain oil. From then until about 1970, the United States was virtually energy-independent with only some oil and gas imports from Mexico and Canada. Wliile U.S. reserves of coal, natural gas and uranium continue to be large enough to supply internal demand with enough left over to export, the supply of oil took a sharp turn downward. After 1970, even while U.S. demand continued to increase at a steep 6.5 percent per year, the supply of U.S. oil began to decline, necessitating sharp increases in U.S. oil imports. 

A nuclear power plant generates electricity in a manner similar to a fossil fuel plant. The fundamental difference is the source of heat to create the steam that turns the turbine-generator. A fossil plant relies on the combustion of natural resources (coal, oil) to create steam. A nuclear reactor creates steam with the heat produced from a controlled chain reaction of nuclear fission (the splitting of atoms). 

As crude oil reserves dwindle, the marketplace will either transition to the electrifying of the transportation system (electric and fuel-cell vehicles and electric railways), with the electricity being produced by coal, natural gas, nuclear and renewables, or see the development of an industry to produce liquid fuel substitutes from coal, oil shale, and tar sands. It might also turn out to be a combination of both. The transition will vary by nation and will be dictated strongly by the fuels available, the economic and technological efficiencies of competitive systems, the relative environmental impacts of each technology, and the role government takes in the marketplace. 

Scottish chemist James Young starts to produce coal oil (kerosine) from coal. 

Coal, oil shale, and tar sand are complex carbonaceous raw materials and possible future energy and chemical sources. However, they must undergo lengthy and extensive processing before they yield fuels and chemicals similar to those produced from crude oils (substitute natural gas (SNG) and synthetic crudes from coal, tar sand and oil shale). These materials are discussed briefly at the end of this chapter. 

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