Mathematical Modeling of Coal Liquid Hydrotreatment Kinetics

Abstract

This thesis work is an early portion of an effort to gain a comprehensive understanding of coal-derived liquid and other syn-fuel upgrading processes. Of the numerous individual processes taking place during this upgrading, or hydrotreatment, my attention was primarily focused on the removal of sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen heteroatoms. As a tool used to gain an understanding of the heteroatom removal processes I considered several types of both empirically and theoretically developed mathematical kinetic models. Using those models I studied the reaction kinetics of the hydrotreatment of coal" derived liquids, which contain a complex mixture of reactants, and of reactant feeds containing a single model heterocompound. Due to the theoretical nature of this study, the scarcity of applicable experimental data presented some difficulties. As a result, I limited the study of single heterocompound hydrotreatment to the hydrodesulfurization process. I believe this work will be helpful to others in their continued effort to understand syn-fuel hydrotreatment. In as much, I know I have gained invaluable knowledge and experience through the completion of this work.