Objective
THE AIM OF THE R & D PROJECT WAS TO DEVELOP A PROCESS TO RECOVER LIQUID FUELS OR CHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS BY CONTINUOUS EXTRACTION OF COALS WITH SUPERCRITICAL WATER VAPOUR.
A continuous extraction process for coal using supercritical water as solvent is being developed. The hydrogenating and hydrolysis properties of supercritical water promise high extraction yields.
To allow continuous extraction, it is necessary to develop an air lock coal feeding and discharge system acting against the high process pressure. An air lock has been successfully tested at pressures up to 200 bar.
The initial extraction tests have shown that super critical water, contrary to expectations, gives a high yield only in the case of soft lignite with a high wax content. This is evidently attributable to the hydrolysis effects taking place. With hard lignite and bituminous coals, however, the extract yields obtained are lower than the coal's volatile constituents content. While it is conceivable that the extract yield, and possibly quality, can be increased by the addition of hydrogenating gases and/or inexpensive hydrogenating catalysts, it is questionable whether this can offset the requisite higher investment and energy costs. In addition, appreciable corrosion problems have to be expected. The condensed water is also highly polluted and would probably require cost intensive treatment before it could be returned to the process.
THE PROJECT WILL HAVE ESSENTIALLY THREE PARTS. FIRSTLY A LOCK HOPPER SYSTEM WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR THE CONTINUOUS ADDITION OF COAL TO THE REACTOR AND FOR THE CONTINUOUS REMOVAL OF EXTRACT.
SECONDLY, A PARALLEL SERIES OF BATCH TYPE EXPERIMENTS WILL ATTEMPT TO DEFINE THE OPTIMUM PROCESS CONDITIONS FOR SUPERCRITICAL EXTRACTION WITH STEAM.
FINALLY, THE RESULTS OF THE FIRST TWO PARTS WILL BE APPLIED IN AN EXTENDED TRIAL TO DEMONSTRATE OPERATION OF THE NEW CONTINUOUS PROCESS.
THE LOCK HOPPER SYSTEM,WHICH WILL BE DESIGNED TO OPERATE AT PRESSURES UP TO 320 BAR AND TEMPERATURES UP TO 450 CELSIUS DEGREES, WOULD IF SUCCESSFUL, REPRESENT AN IMPORTANT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE IN DIRECT LIQUEFACTION. THIS DEVELOPMENT WORK WILL SPAN THE FULL TWO YEAR DURATION OF OVERALL PROJECT.
THE SERIES OF BATCH TYPE EXPERIMENTS TO DETERMINE THE OPTIMUM PROCESS CONDITIONS FOR EXTRACTION WITH SUPERHEATED STEAM WILL BE CONCENTRATED IN THE FIRST EIGHTEEN MONTHS. AN IMPORTANT STEP WILL BE TO SELECT THE MOST SUITABLE COAL ON THE BASIS OF THE YIELD AND QUALITY OF THE EXTRACT AND ON THE NATURE OF THE EXTRACTION RESIDUE.
BESIDES INVOLVING TRIALS AT DIFFERENT PRESSURES, TEMPERATURES AND RESIDENCE TIMES CONSIDERATION WILL BE GIVEN TO TWO DIFFERENT WAYS OF SUPPLYING HYDROGEN AND TO THE APPROPRIATE SELECTION OF CATALYST IN EACH CASE. HYDROGEN CAN BE SUPPLIED FROM AN EXTERNAL SOURCE OR FROM THE CO-SHIFT REACTION CARRIED OUT IN SITU AND CATALYST CAN BE OF THE HOMOGENEOUS OR HETEROGENEOUS TYPE.
IN THE FINAL SIX MONTHS OF THE PROJECT EXTRACTION WILL BE CARRIED OUT CONTINUOUSLY FOR 100 HOURS IN A DEMONSTRATION OF THE LOCK HOPPER SYSTEM AND OF THE PROCESS OPERATED UNDER OPTIMUM CONDITIONS.
STATE OF ADVANCEMENT:
THE FIRST PERIODIC REPORT IS EXPECTED IN JANUARY 1988.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels liquid fuels
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels fossil energy coal
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
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Coordinator
45145 Essen
Germany
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