IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v225y2018icp460-470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mild degradation of Powder River Basin sub-bituminous coal in environmentally benign supercritical CO2-ethanol system to produce valuable high-yield liquid tar

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Fang-Jing
  • Gasem, Khaled A.M.
  • Tang, Mingchen
  • Goroncy, Alexander
  • He, Xin
  • Huang, Zaixing
  • Sun, Kaidi
  • Fan, Maohong

Abstract

A novel and environmentally benign binary supercritical fluid system, comprised of supercritical CO2 and ethanol (SCCO2-ethanol), was employed to convert coal, a conventional energy resource, into high-value liquid tar which can be used as feedstock for the production of fuels/chemicals and carbon fibers. The SCCO2-ethanol system shows good performance for producing valuable liquid tar in high yield from Powder River Basin sub-bituminous coal. The results show that the highest yield of liquid tar reaches up to approximate 38 wt% (38 g/100 g raw coal) at 350 °C, and that SCCO2 can promote the liquid tar yield by 5.6 wt% compared to that using pure ethanol due to the synergistic effect between ethanol and SCCO2. The liquid tars are better candidates as clean fuels than the raw coal or even bituminous coal due to their higher heating values and almost free from ash. The liquid tars from degradation in SCCO2-ethanol (liquid tarSCCO2-ethanol) and in ethanol without SCCO2 (liquid tarethanol) at 350 °C were characterized with multiple analytical techniques. Fourier transform infrared analyses indicated that both liquid tars have similar distributions of functional groups. The proportion of volatile and small-molecular species in liquid tarSCCO2-ethanol is higher than liquid tarethanol according to thermogravimetric analysis. Further, gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry analyses show that phenols and aliphatic esters are the dominant volatile compounds in both liquid tars. The 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance analyses reveal that both liquid tars have low aromaticity and liquid tarSCCO2-ethanol contains more aromatic carbons than liquid tarethanol, especially highly condensed aromatic carbons. Methylene and aliphatic and aromatic CH3 are the major aliphatic moieties in both liquid tars. The liquid tars can be separated into light oil and asphaltene fractions by extraction with n-heptane. In addition, the asphaltene fraction has potential to be used as the precursor for fabricating carbon nanofibers via electrospinning. Possible mechanisms for releasing volatile compounds and asphaltene from Powder River Basin sub-bituminous coal by SCCO2-ethanol degradation were also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Fang-Jing & Gasem, Khaled A.M. & Tang, Mingchen & Goroncy, Alexander & He, Xin & Huang, Zaixing & Sun, Kaidi & Fan, Maohong, 2018. "Mild degradation of Powder River Basin sub-bituminous coal in environmentally benign supercritical CO2-ethanol system to produce valuable high-yield liquid tar," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 460-470.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:225:y:2018:i:c:p:460-470
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.05.048
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261918307591
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.05.048?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Bo & Wei, Xian-Yong & Zong, Zhi-Min & Yang, Zhu-Sheng & Qing, Yu & Liu, Chang, 2011. "Difference in chemical composition of supercritical methanolysis products between two lignites," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 4570-4576.
    2. Walter Leitner, 2000. "Designed to dissolve," Nature, Nature, vol. 405(6783), pages 129-130, May.
    3. Rudyk, Svetlana & Spirov, Pavel, 2014. "Upgrading and extraction of bitumen from Nigerian tar sand by supercritical carbon dioxide," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1397-1404.
    4. Liu, Fang-Jing & Wei, Xian-Yong & Fan, Maohong & Zong, Zhi-Min, 2016. "Separation and structural characterization of the value-added chemicals from mild degradation of lignites: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 415-436.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Fang-Jing & Gasem, Khaled A.M. & Tang, Mingchen & Xu, Bang & Huang, Zaixing & Zhang, Riguang & Fan, Maohong, 2020. "Enhanced liquid tar production as fuels/chemicals from Powder River Basin coal through CaO catalyzed stepwise degradation in eco-friendly supercritical CO2/ethanol," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    2. Wei, Jianguang & Yang, Erlong & Li, Jiangtao & Liang, Shuang & Zhou, Xiaofeng, 2023. "Nuclear magnetic resonance study on the evolution of oil water distribution in multistage pore networks of shale oil reservoirs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    3. Liu, Fang-Jing & Liu, Guang-Hui & Gasem, Khaled A.M. & Xu, Bang & Goroncy, Alexander & Tang, Ming-Chen & Huang, Zai-Xing & Fan, Maohong & Wei, Xian-Yong, 2020. "Green and efficient two-step degradation approach for converting Powder River Basin coal into fuels/chemicals and insights into their chemical compositions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Fang-Jing & Gasem, Khaled A.M. & Tang, Mingchen & Xu, Bang & Huang, Zaixing & Zhang, Riguang & Fan, Maohong, 2020. "Enhanced liquid tar production as fuels/chemicals from Powder River Basin coal through CaO catalyzed stepwise degradation in eco-friendly supercritical CO2/ethanol," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    2. Liu, Fang-Jing & Liu, Guang-Hui & Gasem, Khaled A.M. & Xu, Bang & Goroncy, Alexander & Tang, Ming-Chen & Huang, Zai-Xing & Fan, Maohong & Wei, Xian-Yong, 2020. "Green and efficient two-step degradation approach for converting Powder River Basin coal into fuels/chemicals and insights into their chemical compositions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    3. Moinuddin Ghauri & Khurram Shahzad & M. Shahzad Khurram & Mujtaba Hussain Jaffery & Najaf Ali & Waqar Ali Khan & Keith R. Cliffe, 2017. "Development of a Temperature Programmed Identification Technique to Characterize the Organic Sulphur Functional Groups in Coal," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Sapkota, Krishna & Oni, Abayomi Olufemi & Kumar, Amit & Linwei, Ma, 2018. "The development of a techno-economic model for the extraction, transportation, upgrading, and shipping of Canadian oil sands products to the Asia-Pacific region," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 273-292.
    5. Hui Fan & Menglin Ren & Caiyun Feng & Yue Jiao & Yonghui Bai & Qingxiang Ma, 2022. "Pyrolysis Characteristics of Hailar Lignite in the Presence of Polyvinyl Chloride: Products Distribution and Chlorine Migration," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-12, May.
    6. Cui, Tongmin & Fan, Wenke & Dai, Zhenghua & Guo, Qinghua & Yu, Guangsuo & Wang, Fuchen, 2016. "Variation of the coal chemical structure and determination of the char molecular size at the early stage of rapid pyrolysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 650-659.
    7. Javad Naseryan Moghadam & Nazmul Haque Mondol & Per Aagaard & Helge Hellevang, 2016. "Experimental investigation of seismic velocity behavior of CO2 saturated sandstones under varying temperature and pressure conditions," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 6(6), pages 734-751, December.
    8. Nimana, Balwinder & Canter, Christina & Kumar, Amit, 2015. "Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the recovery and extraction of crude bitumen from Canada’s oil sands," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 189-199.
    9. Omotehinse, Adeyinka O. & De Tomi, Giorgio, 2020. "Managing the challenges of obtaining a social license to operate in the pre-mining phase: A focus on the oil sands communities in Ondo State, Nigeria," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    10. Ning Li & Bo Yan & Xian-Ming Xiao, 2015. "A Review of Laboratory-Scale Research on Upgrading Heavy Oil in Supercritical Water," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-28, August.
    11. Liu, Peng & Zhang, Dexiang & Wang, Lanlan & Zhou, Yang & Pan, Tieying & Lu, Xilan, 2016. "The structure and pyrolysis product distribution of lignite from different sedimentary environment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 254-262.
    12. Yugao Wang & Xiaochen Liu & Zhilei Wang & Chuan Dong & Jun Shen & Xing Fan, 2021. "Insight into Relationship between Thermal Dissolution of Low-Rank Coals and Their Subsequent Oxidative Depolymerization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Hou, Ya-nan & Nie, Bai-sheng & Zhang, Zhe-hao & Kong, Fan-bei & Zhao, Dan & Wang, Xiao-tong & Wang, Cai-ping, 2022. "Inhibitory effect of green antioxidants acting on surface groups and structure on lignite," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    14. Liu, Fang-Jing & Wei, Xian-Yong & Fan, Maohong & Zong, Zhi-Min, 2016. "Separation and structural characterization of the value-added chemicals from mild degradation of lignites: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 415-436.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Coal; Supercritical CO2; Ethanol; Degradation; Liquid tar;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:225:y:2018:i:c:p:460-470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.