41.褐炭の酸化分解による有用化学物質の製造(石炭利用における科学と工学の接点)

抄録

Brown coals are abundant fossil resources, but they have not been utilized to a large extent because of their low calorific values. We have recently presented a method to produce valuable chemicals from brown coals under mild conditions. When North Dakota lignite was oxidized by hydrogen peroxide for 24h at 60℃, 60wt% of the coal decomposed to water-soluble organics, 30% of which were low molecule fatty acids such as acetic acid. In this paper we presented two new methods for upgrading the water-soluble organics. One is the Fenton oxidation of water-soluble organics by which the yield of small molecule components reaches more than 60wt%. The other is the decompositon of water-soluble organics in sub-critical water by which benzene is produced surprisingly in 12wt% yield.