http://www.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/16_1_BOSTON_04-72_0026.pdf
We have made several reports concerning the FMC company, and their operation of a Coal-to-Liquid conversion facility, under contract to the US government, in New Jersey.
Herein, via the link and following excerpt, is a fuller exposition of their "COED" process for the conversion of Coal into hydrocarbon liquids. Or, rather, it is a discussion of how amenable Coal liquids, once produced, are to conventional petroleum refining techniques.
Comment follows excerpts from:
"Hydrogenated COED Oil
John J. Johns; J. J. Johns Associates, Villanova, Pennsylvania
John F. Jones and Bert D. McMunn; FMC Corporation, Princeton, New Jersey
Introduction
The COED process converts coal by fluidized-bed pyrolysis into gas, oil and char. Under Project COED, which is sponsored by the Office of Coal Research of the Department of the Interior, a 30 B/D fixed-bed catalytic hydrogenation pilot plant was constructed and operated for the hydrogenation of COED oils. This facility operates with a 36 T/D coal pyrolysis pilot plant. The Central Research.and Development Department of the FMC Corporation conducts this work.
As would be expected, COED oils as produced have a high density and a low hydrogen content. In addition, they have a high concentration of heteroatoms--oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur. Hydrogenation is necessary to produce a synthetic crude oil from the COED oil ... conventional refinery processing. The raw COED oil must be filtered before fixed-bed hydrogenation to remove fines. The fines content of the raw oil is reduced from about 3.0 percent to less than 0.1 percent by weight prior to hydrogenation.
The hydrogenation pilot plant was started up in May, 1971 after resolution of a number of mechanical problems.
The pilot plant is, in general, of conventional refinery hydrotreating design. The major equipment consists of downflow reactors with makeup and recycle hydrogen compressors and heaters. No downstream or upstream distillation equipment is included. Details were published in a project report to the Office of Coal Research.
One somewhat unusual feature is the use of a guard chamber-type reactor ahead of the main reactors. This was installed because it was feared that residual fine solids or the caking characteristics of the charge stock might plug the main reactors. All reactors are in series. To date no difficulty has been experienced with plugging of the guard chamber.
The catalyst charged to the reactors was HDS-3 catalyst produced by American Cyanamid Co.
All of the runs reported in this study were made with a COED oil produced from the pyrolysis of a Colorado coal from the Bear Mine.
Unlike most petroleum crudes, there were very few major metallic ingredients in the COED oil.
Treatment with hydrogen over a hydrogenation catalyst effectively removed iron, aluminum and silicon.
... removal of sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen compounds is essentially complete at the ... reactor conditions prevailing.
In general ... the results presented here ... tend to confirm the earlier ... AtlanticRichfield studies. They also prove that adequate heteroatom removal in commercial units is possible at modest severities.
A sample of the hydrotreated COED oil ... was distilled into several fractions. These fractions represent the conventional distillation ranges for gasoline, middle distillates, gas oil and bottoms produced in conventional petroleum refining.
From these petroleum-type inspections it can be readily seen that hydrotreated COED oil is a satisfactory crude oil charge to a petroleum refinery.
These inspections show that these cuts can be adequately blended into conventionally produced refinery streams.
The gasoline and middle distillate stocks exhibit a high gum content. This gum can be virtually eliminated by any number of conventional refinery treating processes.
The middle distillates fraction is somewhat low in gravity, as would be suspected. It would be anticipated, however, that it would be very high on a Btu per volume basis.
The higher boiling cuts also appear to be adaptable to conventional refining techniques."
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So, in 1971 and 1972, the United States Government paid FMC and ARCO to demonstrate that Coal liquids, produced by the COED process, are a "satisfactory crude oil charge to a petroleum refinery".
That fact was demonstrated, and all the Coal liquids produced in FMC's New Jersey pilot plant appeared "to be adaptable to conventional refining techniques".
So, how come none of those Coal liquids, in the four decades since, actually got refined?
FMC did see promise in the technology, as we will demonstrate in a later dispatch documenting the United States Patent they were awarded for the technology developed in this Government-sponsored project.
Once again, we United States Taxpaying Citizens financed, via the Department of Interior's Office of Coal Research, the development of this technology which could convert Coal into "a satisfactory crude oil".