Effects of pressures, temperatures, catalyst addition, and kinds of solvents and atmospheric gases on coal liquefaction of Taiheiyo coal were examined using a c. s. t. reactor and the following conclusions were obtained.
1. The experimental results were correlated by the following rate equation 1-X=X/ (kθ) +α where the value of α was affected only by temperature, and the value of k varried with reaction conditions.
2. A coal liquefaction mechanism was estimated to involve the following two steps; (1) thermal cracking of coal and intermediates, and stabilization of them by hydrogen donor components which was a noncatalytic liquid-liquid reaction, (2) reproduction of the donor components by gaseous hydrogen which was a gasliquid catalytic reaction, and it was found that the rate determining step of coal liquefaction was considerably affected by the amount of donor components.
By this reaction mechanism, effects of pressures, kinds of solvents and catalyst addition on coal liquefaction observed in the present experiment and also those found in literatures could be reasonably explained.
