Preconversion processing of bituminous coals: New directions to improved direct catalytic coal liquefaction.
We submit this supposedly DOE-sponsored report with some caution. No individual authors were named, and we can as yet find no trace of a BCR National Lab in Pittsburgh. All the other "National" Labs we're familiar with have their own web sites, and published third-party descriptions available. But not, apparently, "BCR".
However, we send this along because it is an explication of the process for direct coal liquefaction, the technique which, we believe, is at the heart of WVU's "West Virginia Process" for coal-to-liquid conversion.
Excerpt, with comment following:
"Publication Date 1992 Oct 01 OSTI Identifier OSTI ID: 7150506; Legacy ID: DE93006439 Report Number(s) DOE/PC/91041-T4; BCRNL-L--1668 DOE Contract Number AC22-91PC91041 Other Number(s) Other: ON: DE93006439 Resource Type Technical Report Research Org BCR National Lab., Pittsburgh, PA (United States) Sponsoring Org DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
Abstract:
Soaking coal in coal liquids at 300-400[degrees]C (high-tenperature soaking) has been studied for coal dissolution prior to liquefaction in the previous task. Two high-volatile bituminous coals, Illinois No. 6 and Pittsburgh No. 8, were examined in three different coal liquids. The high-temperature soaking was effective to solubilize more than 70 wt% cf these coals. The mechanism of disintegration of coal by the high-temperature soaking was investigated under various soaking conditions. The products was also analyzed with solvent swelling. These results were rationalized that coal is solubilized primarily by physical disintegration. The derived mechanism was consistent with the new concept of coal structure: A significant portion of coal is physically associated, not three-dimensionally cross-linked. Radically-induced scission reactions were proposed to prorate breakage of coal moleculs by the combination of the high-temperature soaking before liquefaction. In this term, the effect of radical initiators were investigated under the conditions of the high-temperature soaking and liquefaction. Illinois No. 6 coal and a coal liquid derived from the same coal were used. The first section reports the effect of radical initiators on coal disintegration, and the second section reports the effect of a radical initiator on coal liquefaction. Radical initiators had a positive effect on disintegration. However, the effect was highly temperature-dependent and had a negative effect on liquefaction at high temperatures."
Our take is that this report is supposed to be part of a series, given the first-sentence passage "has been studied for coal dissolution prior to liquefaction in the previous task". However, we can find no reports of previous, or subsequent, tasks; and, no substantiating documentation that a "BCR", or any other, "National Lab" exists in Pittsburgh.
Lacking such documentation, we submit it only because the DOE was the reported sponsor, and because of the similarities in this process description to what we know of the WV CTL Process. Too, if valid, the report confirms that there has been a lot of US effort put into the development of coal liquefaction processes, which, like the several CTL plants put into operation immediately after WWII, and in the several decades following, we just haven't heard much about.