Hydro-Liquefaction of Tile-Like Barzas Coals in the Presence of Some Transition Metal Additives

Using a laboratory micro-autoclave (of ~ 20 cm3 volume), the effects of transition metal additives (MoO3, Fe2O3 and commercial AlCoMo catalyst) on the thermal transformations of tile-like Barzas coals (sapromixites) in a hydrogen medium at T ~ 475°C and P ~ 6.0-7.5 MPa have been studied. It has been shown that catalytic additives under investigation somewhat suppress gas formation processes, facilitating the increase in H/C atomic ratios and in the amount of alkyl-containing structures in resin-like solid products of Barzas coal hydro-liquefaction. Maximal yields of “coal liquids” (maltenes + asphaltenes) (~ 35 wt.%, daf basis) were obtained during the heat treatment of sapromixites in the presence of bb1 wt.% MoO3.

Hydrogen solubility of shale oil containing polar phenolic compounds

Many refineries use hydrogen to upgrade heavy fuel feedstocks, and therefore, hydrogen solubility is an important parameter. Shale oil is a fuel for which hydrotreatment is of interest, but no data about its hydrogen solubility can be found in the literature. This article presents experimental data for the hydrogen solubility of two shale oil samples measured at high temperatures and pressures (423 to 527 K and 40 to 140 bar). Experiments were performed using a continuous flow apparatus. Results show that the shale oil had a lower hydrogen solubility than most other fuels, probably due to the high content of polar phenolic compounds in the oil. Removing about 80% of the phenolic compounds increased the hydrogen solubility by approximately 0.1 mol H2/kg oil (which is about 15 to 45%, depending on the solubility). Analysis also showed that current prediction methods used for petroleum and coal liquids cannot reliably be used for predicting the hydrogen solubility of this shale oil and other similar fuels.