Valuable Crude Oil from Hydrothermal Liquefaction of an Aliphatic Coal

Abstract

Artificial maturation techniques, like hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) have demonstrated the ability to generate petroleum-like products, termed bio-oils, from feedstocks including manure, algae and agricultural wastes; however the oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur content of bio-oils often requires upgrading. The objective of this study was to utilize HTL on a low rank coal to produce a high quality crude oil sample that can be used as a transportation fuel. Coal from the WyodakAnderson coal seam was selected for HTL due to its predominant aliphatic character and low heteroatom content. HTL was performed at 360 °C for 72 hours. The untreated coal, spent solid and expelled oil were analyzed using several advance analytical techniques including solid-state 13 C NMR, two dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and electrospray ionizationFourier transform ion cyclotron resonance-mass spectrometry to achieve a comprehensive molecular characterization. Solid state 13 C NMR analyses of the untreated and spent coal

Application of mass spectrometry in the characterization of chemicals in coal‐derived liquids

“…This result could be mainly attributed to the hydro‐denitrogenation treatment during second‐staged DCL. Hartman and Hatcher () found that NCCs in the expelled oil from coal hydrothermal liquefaction account for only 1% relative abundance among all the assigned classes. A series of NCCs including the N 1 , N 2 , N 1 O 1 , and N 1 O 2 classes were characterized in a DCL residue through solvent extraction followed by positive‐ion ESI FT‐ICR MS analysis of the extracts (Li et al, ).…”

“…In comparison to NCCs, only one publication involve SCCs characterization in DCL products with FT‐ICR MS by Hartman & Hatcher (). They identified the S 1 O o (o = 1–12) class species in the expelled oil from coal hydrothermal liquefaction with negative‐ion ESI FT‐ICR MS and the S 1 O 1 ‐ S 1 O 3 class species are predominant.…”

“…In comparison to NCCs, only one publication involve SCCs characterization in DCL products with FT-ICR MS by Hartman & Hatcher (2014 (Wu et al, 2003). Then DBE value distributions of the S 1 O o class species in the pyridine extract as well as the hexane extract and its insoluble portion were discussed (Wu, Rodgers, & Marshall, 2004a).…”

“…In addition, many hydrogen‐donating compounds (tetralin and its alkylated homologues) and isomeric non‐donors (indan and its alkylated homologues) were identified by GC × GC‐TOFMS in the recycle solvent. GC × GC‐TOFMS was employed to characterize the molecular composition of the expelled oil from hydrothermal liquefaction (360 °C for 72 h) of a Wyodak‐Anderson coal (Hartman & Hatcher, ). The result shows that the expelled oil is rich in hydrocarbons such as alkanes, alkenes, cycloalkanes, alkybenzenes, indanes, and naphthalenes, along with small amounts of OCCs like ketones and phenols.…”

“…Omais et al () revealed a series of phenols and monocarboxylic acids in a gasoil cut from DCL using ESI FT‐ICR MS. The expelled oil from coal hydrothermal liquefaction as stated above (Hartman & Hatcher, ) was analyzed with ESI FT‐ICR MS to identify polar and less volatile chemicals. The O o (o = 1–7) class species were found to be the most abundant, accounting for 96% of all the assigned class chemicals in relative abundance, and the O o class species are dominated by AAs (the O 2 class species with DBE = 1) and ADAs (the O 4 class species with DBE = 2).…”