The solvolytic conversion of softening
bituminous coal at 380 °C
in solvents derived from the commercial hydrocarbon byproducts and
residues from coal and petroleum processing was studied. Hydrogen-donor
tetrahydronaphthalene (THN) and nondonor 1-methylnaphthalene (MN)
were also used for comparison. The high-boiling solvents of different
chemical classes (highly aromatic coal tar, its anthracene fraction,
and low-aromatic heavy gas oil of catalytic cracking of the oil residue)
and the H-donor THN solvent were found to exhibit high efficiency
for coal conversion into quinoline-soluble products. The chemical
and molecular compositions of coal, solvents, and dissolved products
were characterized in detail by different techniques, including chemical
analysis, group analysis, infrared Fourier transform (IRFT) spectroscopy,
X-ray diffraction (XRD), liquid chromatography, and thermal analysis
to reveal the chemical transformations of the coal–solvent
mixture during the dissolution reaction. The solvolysis of coal in
the liquid phase of both highly aromatic and low-aromatic solvents
was found to involve selective depolymerization of polymer-like coal
via breaking of weak linkages between the aromatic units, resulting
in the formation of soluble pitchlike products. The effective dissolution
of coal in the H-donor THN solvent resulted probably from a combination
of the nonselective thermal fragmentation of the coal structure to
smaller radical intermediates and their stabilization by hydrogen from THN, producing mainly tar and
a few gases. The low-boiling solvents of both predominantly aromatic
and aliphatic classes (gas oils from naphtha pyrolysis and delayed
coking of the petroleum residue) and MN exhibited poor efficiency
for coal dissolution. The concentrations of carcinogenic benzo(a)pyrene
(BaP) in the solvents used and in the toluene fractions of the resulting
extracts were analyzed. The remarkable result was that coal extracts,
compared to solvents, contained much less BaP, probably due to its
conversion with coal and/or solvent molecules during coal dissolution.