Steam pretreatment for coal liquefaction. Second quarterly report, 1 January 1991--31 March 1991

Steam pretreatment is the reaction of coal with steam at temperatures well below those usually used for solubilization. The objective of the proposed work is to test the application of steam pretreatment to coal liquefaction. This quarter, a 300 ml stirred autoclave for liquefaction tests was received and installation initiated. Four coal samples were obtained from the Penn State Sample Bank. Continuous flow pretreatment procedures were reestablished. Extraction yields after pretreatment of the new sample of Illinois No. 6 coal are in agreement with previous results even though the particle size is considerably larger. Purification of the model compound B-naphthylmethyl phenyl ether has been completed. However, {alpha}-naphthylmethyl phenyl ether has been found to undergo acid catalyzed rearrangement during purification on silica. An alternative method for purification is being examined