AN AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 3, NUMBER 2
MARCHIAPRIL 1989
0 Copyright 1989 by the American Chemical Society
Editorial Coal-Oil Coprocessing: A Technology Whose Time Is Approaching Coal-oil coprocessing offers a means for stretching out petroleum resources for producing liquid fuels. For countries with ample coal supplies that are net importers of petroleum, it is a means to approach self sufficiency in liquid fuels. A report recently issued by the U.S. Department of Energy reviews several coprocessing technologies that have been tested in industrial scale equipment.’ By use of a feedstock consisting of equal parts by weight of coal and vacuum residue and generation of hydrogen from natural gas, coal is converted to distillate liquids at the rate of 4.5 bbl/ton. Especially for upgrading heavy crudes, such as Canadian Cold Lake or Venezuelan Boscan that have vacuum residue fractions in the range 70-80%, coprocessing represents a promising approach to producing high-value fuels. At present products of coprocessing are not price competitive with those produced by conventional petroleum refining. Process improvements gained through research and additional plant operating experience will make coprocessing more economic. At a recent conference, the Division of Fuel Chemistry of the American Chemical Society sponsored three symposia on coprocessing and upgrading of coal-derived liquids.2 Results were reported on a wide range of research, spanning laboratory scale to plant scale and touching upon specific feedstock effects, kinetics and catalysis, product analysis, effects of plant operating conditions, and other topics. The present issue contains a number of papers delivered at the three symposia. Among others, the following topics are discussed. Szladow et al. report a reaction network and kinetic analysis for the CANMET process. Cugini et al. describe experiments with a novel water-soluble, dispersed molybdenum catalyst. Curtis and Pellegrino compare activities of several forms of molybdenum catalyst. Ikura et al. show that vacuum bottoms derived from a Canadian heavy oil are effective in beneficiating lignite via oil agglomeration. The beneficiated lignite can serve as feed for coprocessing. Boehm and Caron review the economics of two approaches to coprocessing for application in Canada. Coprocessing shows promise of becoming an economic route to liquid fuels from coal and heavy oil. Research is narrowing the gap between promise and reality. John A. Ruether (1) “Assessment of Coprocessing of Coal and Residual Oil in the United States Refining Industry”; Final Report, Sept 1988, DOE/FE/60457-H3, U.S. Department of Energy. (2) 195th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society and Third Chemical Congress of North America, Toronto, Canada, June 5-11, 1988.
0887-0624/89/2503-0115$01.50/0
0 1989 American Chemical Society
