Reactivity of coals under coprocessing conditions

In the recent years greater interest has developed for processes involving coal and petroleum fractions to produce distillate fuels. Coprocessing is especially attractive as a direct liquefaction process because it involves the use of heavy petroleum fractions, so both coal and heavy petroleum resids are upgraded simultaneously. The main distinction of coprocessing from other direct liquefaction processes is that coprocessing is more complex from a chemical standpoint than direct liquefaction processes which use traditional solvents, due to the greater variety of hydrocarbons (aromatic from the coal and aliphatics from the petroleum) present in the system. Therefore, need arises for better understanding of the chemical and physical interactions during coprocessing. The aim of the present study is to examine the influence of reaction conditions, coal and petroleum resid properties as well as the compatibility of the coal/petroleum resid pairs in terms of structural components on total coal conversion. Special focus will be given to the reactivity of coals and interaction of the coal and resid which lead to anisotropic coke.