Separation Technology in Coal Liquefaction

Abstract

The coal liquefaction is one of the most promising process to supply substituted energy of petroleum to us in the near future. Currently many synthetic fuel oil processes, therefore, are being developed in U.S., United Kingdom (U.K.), Federal Republic of Germany, Australia and Japan.
The separation unit in the coal liquefaction process plays an important role for the separation of gas fraction including ;hydrogen, product oil, process solvent and residue (unconverted coal and ash). The physical properties of coal liquid such as viscosity, enthalpy and vapor pressure are necessitated for designing effective separation unit including gas-liquid separator, distillation column and solid-liquid separator, reliable operation data on pilot plant or process developing unit.
In this review, the current separation units of the several developing processes, i. e., SRC-I, SRC-II, EDS and H-coal processes, are reviewed to clarify some barriers to overcome. Moreover, the estimation methods of the vapor pressure of coal liquid and the gas solubility are suggested.