Goal Liquefaction

Flash Pyrolysis Goal Liquefaction Process Development, FE-2244-4, Quarterly Report for July-Sept. 1976, Occidental Research Gorp., Irvine, GA, 1976, pp. 35-41. 

Goal liquefaction is a catalytic process that converts different varieties of coal into synthetic petroleum by reacting coal with hydrogen gas at high temperature and under high pressure. The resultant synoil product has the potential to contribute significantly to the U.S. petroleum supply and reduce the need for the United States and other coal-producing countries to rely on imported oil. 

Goal liquefaction involves converting bituminous or (more rarely) anthracite coal into a liquid that can be refined into the end product. The focus is on transportation fuels to lower the direct and indirect costs that oil-importing states incur in purchasing large volumes of petroleum from abroad. 

See also Chemical Engineering Coal Gasification Goal Liquefaction Cracking Petroleum Extraction and Processing. 

The plant processes 26,840 TPSD of low sulfur North Dakota lignite. The sulfur is 1.3 wt%/DAF coal. The coal analysis is shown in Table II. Output from the plant is 268,700 MM Btu/day of SNG, equivalent to 45,000 BOE/day. Total production of by-product elemental sulfur is 161 tons/day. This represents 78 wt% of total sulfur input from the coal feedstock. Since goal gasification and indirect liquefaction facilities are most likely to use Western low sulfur lignite or subbituminous coals, this represents the low sulfur case for coal conversion. 

The recovery, regeneration, and repeated reuse of the active catalyst are of prime importance in substantially reducing the overall cost of coal liquefaction. The used catalysts usually remain in the bottoms products, which consist of nondistillable asphaltenes, preasphaltenes, unreacted coal, and minerals. The asphaltenes and preasphaltenes can be recycled with the catalyst in bottoms recycle processes. However, unreacted coal and minerals, if present in the recycle, dilute the catalyst and limit the amount of allowable bottoms recycle because they unnecessarily increase the slurry viscosity and corrosion problems. Hence, these useless components should be removed or at least reduced in concentration. If the catalyst is deactivated, reactivation becomes necessary before reuse. Thus, the design of means for catalyst regeneration and recycle is necessary for an effective coal liquefaction process. Several approaches to achieving these goals are discussed below. 

Hence, the authors propose that an improved coal liquefaction process may be one in which complete conversion of coal with minimal formation of residue should be the primary goal, even if hydrocarbon gas yields increase. These hydrocarbon gases are easily converted to recover the hydrogen they consume. 

Coal liquefaction that can provide liquid fuels at the price of current petroleum (not cost but price) is one of the most important technologies that needs to be developed. The catalyst and control of its operating conditions are still key to technology for advanced coal liquefaction. The creative design of catalyst materials and reaction schemes is an important and challenging goal for the future. 

For the purposes of this chapter, the solvent extraction of coal is limited to those investigations and test methods that are separate form the high-temperature treatment of coal with solvents in which the production of liquid products (liquefaction) is the goal. 

The goal of the EDS coal liquefaction project is to develop the process to a state of commercial readiness. This means that the technology should be available at the end of the project to design and build a full-scale, pioneer commercial plant with a reasonable and acceptable level of risk. 

While the topic of this paper is Canada s PTGL (Pyrolysis Thermal Gasification and Liquefaction) research program it is useful to review the current status of conversion technologies for biomass. The goal is to describe the characteristics of each technology so that efficiencies, process steps and environmental factors are well quantified and under these circumstances for a known cost and nature of feedstock an economic or social decision can be taken as to whether or not to implement the technology. 

Subsequent studies (6) produced a mathematical model of the process which defined the importance of tube diameter on pressure drop. The design flow in a channel was found to be proportional to the 2.0 to 2.5 power of the tube diameter. Thus, a prototype utilizing 1 1/4-inch diameter tubes was constructed and operated stably at 85% juice yields with much lower pressure drops (250-350 psi). This same study (6) also addressed optimization of viscosity reduction of the puree and membrane flux utilizing commercial liquefaction enzymes. Viscosity reduction was readily obtained with even small amounts of liquefaction enzymes, and further increases in enzyme concentration did not appreciably affect viscosity reduction. However, steady state flux was proportional to the level of enzyme used up to 0.044%. Membrane flux correlated very well, as expected (3), with reduction of total pectin. It was evident that enzyme pretreatment should be further developed with the goal of enhancing flux rather than reducing viscosity, especially since increased tube diameter could be used to overcome pressure drops imparted by the viscosity of the retentate at high juice recoveries. 

Indianapolis 500 race and to visit Ford Motor Company. At Ford he became convinced that flirther improvements in the manufacture and use of autos could only come as a result of improvements in the operation of the motor, and motor operation was then limited by the properties of the fuel. Returning to France, he set out to develop a superior motor fuel as well as to provide France with an internal source of transportation fuel. This latter goal required the liquefaction of lignite, the only abundant fossil fuel found within France. 

In the liquefaction process, the goal is to convert coal to a petroleum-like liquid that can be used as a fuel for motor vehicles and other applications. On the one hand, both liquefaction and gasification are attractive technologies in the United States because of its very large coal resources. On the other hand, the wide availability of raw coal means that expensive new technologies have been unable to compete economically with the natural product. 

In recent years, the use of coal as a raw material for the productions of hydrocarbons, liquid transportation fuels, chemical feedstocks and solid fuel is gaining importance. Tliree important processes for the achievement of this goal are (1) direct (2) removal of sulfur from coal by oxydesul-indirect coal liquefaction or the Fischer-All of these processes employ three-phase slurry reactors. In this overview, a present state of the art for the models, scaleup, design and other operational problems associated with these processes are briefly evaluated. 

See also Biofuels and Synthetic Fuels Chemical Engineering Goal Gasification Coal Liquefaction Fossil Fuel Power Plants Petroleum Extraction and Processing. 

Thus, the overall goal of any remediation work is to investigate alternatives to mitigate the liquefaction hazard so that relative benefits versus costs for different levels of mitigation efforts can be assessed. In investigating potential remedial measures, the following factors should be considered ... 

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