Inertinites liquefaction

Earlier publications have documented the higher reactivities of vitrinite and liptinite group macerals and the lower reactivities of certain inertinite macerals in liquefaction (50,57,68). 

For American and European coking coals the behaviour of semi-fusinite is generally less important since only small quantities of this maceral are usually present. However, South African coal used in coke oven-blends contains as little as 40 per cent vitrinite and as much as 45 per cent reactive semi-fusinite (12). The partial reactivity of the semi-fusinite fraction during liquefaction of Australian coals has been reported by Guyot et al (13). They found that the low reflecting inertinite in two coals up to (a reflectance from 1.40 to 1.49) was reactive. This agrees with the results of Smith and Steyn (12) who consider that the semi-fusinite fraction in South African coals up to V- 5 (1.50 - 1.59) can be reactive to coking. 

The correlation of coal characteristics with liquefaction behaviour has received considerable attention (see, for example refs l-7> particularly since the renewed interest during the 1970s in the production of liquid fuels and chemical feedstocks directly from coal. As early as 1940, Storch and coworkers(8,9) demonstrated that coals containing up to 87% dmmf C give high yiel of soluble products (albeit under severe conditions) and materials which today would be classified as vitrinite and inertinite liquefy readily. More recently, the work... 

Liquefaction of inertinites is not always as poor as the name would imply. Table III shows some conversion data taken from Ref. (91), where conversion is defined as ethyl acetate solubles plus gases. The low reflecting Australian fusinites and seini-fusinites are reactive compared to the Illinois samples. This has been confirmed by a recent study on Australian inertinites (93) where it has been found that at higher temperatures (450 C) up to 54% of the inertinite was calculated to be converted. This difference between the Australian and North American inertinites has also been observed in carbonization reactions (94). 

Product characterization from liquefaction has not been extensive. Phi 1p and Russell (95) have examined products by Py-GCMS from metal halide catalyzed hydrogenation of a vitrinite, alginite, and inertinite, each from a different source. They were able to correlate Py-GCMS results with reaction temperature. King, et al. (96) examined the short contact time liquefaction of macerals separated by DGC from a single hvB bituminous coal. They found correlations between density and reactivity and composition of the products. 

The yields of the reaction of maceral concentrates with pyridine and iodine show some interesting trends and are given in Table V. Unlike the results from the thermal reactions such as vacuum pyrolysis (Table IV) or short contact time liquefaction (29), the vitrinites are more reactive than the spori-nites. The inertinites are less reactive but the magnitude of the difference in the comparison with the other maceral groups from the Indiana and Kentucky coals is much less than what has been found for the yields from the thermal reactions. 

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