Reaction pathways during coprocessing the reaction of Illinois No. 6 coal with Lloydminster resid under mild conditions

Over the past years a number of processes have been developed for the direct liquefaction of coal. Typically, these processes involve thermal degradation of the macromolecular structure of coal, and are followed by hydrogenation to stabilize the degraded material and to increase the hydrogen-to-carbon ratio of the distillable products. In conventional coal liquefaction, a hydrogenated coal derived solvent is used as a vehicle for the transfer of hydrogen to the coal components. Coprocessing of coal with petroleum resid is an alternative technology in which the petroleum resid places the donor solvent. Coprocessing of petroleum resid with coal is a bridge coal liquefaction and hydrocracking that simultaneously upgrades coal and resid. Consequently, coprocessing may offer some special advantages. It has been observed that a better understanding of the chemistry of coprocessing might yield improvements in the technology. It seemed appropriate to establish more securely the relationship between the basic work and the reaction pathways that are involved in coprocessing. Accordingly, we have studied the coprocessing reactions of Illinois No. 6 coal with Lloydminster resid under the same reaction conditions that were used to investigate the influence of these fossil materials on hydrogen atom transfer and carbon-carbon cleavage reactions. 16 refs., 1more » fig., 1 tab.« less