Coal liquefaction process streams characterization and evaluation: Electron microscopy observations of resids obtained from coal liquefaction experiments

The study demonstrated the feasibility of using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) spectroscopy accompanied by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy for the examination of the (THF)-insoluble portion of distillation resid materials derived from direct coal liquefaction. The technique was able to determine the distribution, morphology and elemental composition of dispersed catalyst components in the insoluble portion of the distillation resids. An attempt was made to use transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on these samples; however, detailed compositional information could not be obtained. Further development of STEM and EDX as aids to process development are justified based on these results.