Abstract
If all the carbon in a low rank coal is converted into benzene, which is a key raw material of the petrochemical industry, emission of carbon dioxide is avoided during the conversion process. In this case, hydrogen supply from another energy source is required considering the usual C/H/O composition of coal. A novel CO_2 free coal-to-benzene conversion process can be achieved with hydrogen from solar energy. In this study, rapid pyrolysis experiment of the low rank coals (brown coal and subbituminous coal) was carried out to quantify methane and benzene obtained by a single step reaction with or without hydrogen in the atmosphere. As a result, the methane and benzene yield was improved when hydrogen was used as a gasifying agent, and the methane yield increased with hydrogen partial pressure. Benzene was interpreted as a reaction intermediate. Therefore the benzene yield could be increased with optimizing reaction conditions.
