A MODEL FOR THE HYDROGEN DONOR KINETICS OF TETRALIN WITH COAL AT 400 DEGREE C
Abstract
A study has been done on the hydrogen donor kinetics of tetralin at 400(DEGREES)C. Experiments were made on tetralin, tetralin and coal, and dihydrophenanthrene and naphthalene mixtures in a small batch reactor over reaction periods of 1.5 to 60 minutes. The resulting tetralin derived products, (naphthalene, dihydronaphthalene, methyl indane, indane) along with accumulated hydrogen gas where measured by gas chromatography. The results were fit to a theoretically based kinetic model representing the hydrogen donor action as sequential steps of hydrogen free radical decomposition. The model was used in calculations of both high and low transfer rates. As a parallel effort, a general model was developed for coal as a hydrogen acceptor. This model lumped the many coal surface reactions into one rate which accounts for the coal reacting with any hydrogen source. Calculations were made describing hydrogen donor and coal interactions for cases where film resistance to donor solvent mass transfer was either significant or negligible. The data best supported a model which considered hydrogen free radical transfer as the mechanism of the hydrogen source. Additional experiments were made which studied the effects of slow heating of tetralin and Pittsburgh Seam Coal. These experiments were also done in small batch reactor but the heatup periods were all above 5 minutes. These results showed that there was no effect of heating rate on coal conversion to toluene and pyride solubles in the temperature range of 350(DEGREES) to 430(DEGREES)C.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Chemical engineering|Energy
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