Steam pretreatment for coal liquefaction. Third quarterly report, 1 April 1991--30 June 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. A 300 ml stirred autoclave for liquefaction tests is being installed. A nonflow steam pretreatment procedure has been established for work with model compounds. Pretreatment tests with Blind Canyon coal, a coal similar to Illinois No. 6 but containing no sulfur, have been started. These initial tests show only a slight increase in yield resulting from pretreatment. A method for purifying {alpha}napthylmethyl phenyl ether has been found which avoids its acid catalyzed rearrangement. Alpha-benzylnaphthyl ether has been pretreated and the products tentatively identified