COAL AND COAL

CHEMICALS
Prepared by:Aman Khandelwal
Shardul Karve
Huma Pathan

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Coal

Coal is shiny black rock with energy.

How Coal Was Formed

 Over the years, thick layers of

plants were covered by dirt and
water.
The plants were packed down by
the weight of the dirt and the water.

After a long time,

heat and pressure
changed the plants
into coal.

Four Main Types of Coal

Anthracite
Carbon content between 86 and 98 percent. Heat value of about
15,000 BTUs/lb.

Bituminous
Carbon content between 45 and 86 percent. Heat value of 10,500 to
15,500 BTUs/lb.

Sub bituminous
Carbon content between 35 and 45 percent. Heat value of 8,300 to
13,000 BTUs/lb.

Lignite
Carbon content between 25 and 35 percent. Heat value of 4,000 to
8,300 BTUs/lb.

First, coal is transported.

Most coal is
moved by trains
to power plants
and factories.
The cost of
shipping coal can
cost more than it
costs to mine it!

Sometimes it is moved on
barges along rivers.

Coal Production
Coal is majorly mined in 8 states in
India.

Jharkhand produces the most coal.

Texas Produces Coal!

Coal Reserves
Coal reserves are beds of coal still
in the ground waiting to be mined.
The United States has the worlds
largest known coal reserves!

COKING OF COAL

Introduction
Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a
high carbon content, usually made from coal.
It is the solid carbonaceous material derived
from destructive distillation of low-ash, lowsulphur bituminous coal.
Cokes made from coal are grey, hard,
and porous. While coke can be formed
naturally, the commonly used form is manmade.
The form known as petroleum coke, or pet
coke, is derived from oil refinery coker units
or other cracking processes.

Coking Of Coal
Raw materials:
The feed materials are coking coals which are
distinguished by the fact that they begin to soften at
about 300 Celsius.
As the temperature rises, the fluidity of the mass
reaches a maximum and finally the mass solidifies to
form coke.
The gases and vapors during the plastic stage swell
the mass, causing the coke to have a porous structure.
Non coking coals do not often soften during heating
and the product, known as char, crumbles easily.

 Chemical Reaction:
4(C3H4)n nC6H6 + 5nC + 3nH2 + nCH4
Coal
Benzene
Coke
Lighter
hydrocarbon

The coking of coal is considered to follow the

approximate equation.

Process
The high temperature carbonization of coal is carried out at 900 Celsius
to 1150 Celsius in batteries of tall vertical ceramic chambers separated
by heating flues.
Each chamber may be 13 feet high, 38 to 40 feet long and tapering in
width from 17-18 inches at one end to 15-16 inches at the other.
One oven may hold 16-24 tons of coal and a battery may contain 10100 ovens.
Crushed coal is dropped into an oven preheated at 1100 Celsius.

After a heating time of about 17 hours, doors on the ends of the oven
are opened and the entire red hot coke mass is pushed out into a
quencher.

 Major engineering problems:

Maintenance of refractories and brickwork at
high operating temperatures, imposing severe
thermal strain.
Maintenance of uniform coking temperatures
by proper heating and waste gas circulations.

Economics
The primary use of coke from coal is as a
reducing agent in the primary metal industries
(iron & steel). One ton of coal produces about
1500 pounds of coke, but only about 15
gallons of liquid products.

Uses
Coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing
agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. The
carbon monoxide produced by its combustion
reduces iron oxide (hematite) in the production of
the iron product.
Coke is sometimes used as a filter in whiskey
distilleries in which a mixture of coal and peat is
used.

Coal Tar
Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of extremely
high viscosity.
Coal tar is among the by-products
when coal is carbonized to make coke or gasified to
make coal gas.
Coal tars are complex and variable mixtures
of phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),
and heterocyclic compounds.

Distillation Of Coal Tar

Raw Materials:

The so called light oil from the coking process is the

feed material in the distillation of coal tar.

Process

The separation of the light oil into its various tarry,

phenolic and aromatic hydrocarbon constituents
involves a wide variety of unit operations with major
emphasis on a number of distillation steps.
Petroleum refining techniques, including
hydrodesulphurization and solvent extraction have
been applied to the processing of coke even light oils
to give greater amounts of high-purity products.

 Major Engineering Problems:

Special problems of corrosion and erosion

are encountered in the processing of tar
due to the presence of solid particles,
water, ammonium chloride and other
chemicals which can cause severe
corrosion when concentrated.
Economics

The economics of coal tar distillation

relate mainly to competitive petrochemical
routes to such products as aromatic
hydrocarbons and phenols.

Uses
Coal tar is incorporated into some parkinglot sealcoat products, which are used to protect and
beautify the underlying pavement. It was also used to
make the first roads ever.
Being flammable, coal tar is sometimes used for
heating or to fire boilers. Like most heavy oils, it must
be heated before it will flow easily.
Coal tar is also used to manufacture paints, synthetic
dyes, and photographic materials.

Coal Mining
Surface Mining

Underground Mining

1. Surface Coal Mining

Surface mining occurs at exposed coal seams. It involves drilling
above ground and blasting to remove overburden. After the
overburden is removed, the mined coal is harvested.

2. Underground Mining
Room and Pillar Mining rooms are cut into the coal bed leaving a
series of pillars or columns of coal to help support the mine roof
and control the flow of air. The miners advance while cutting out
pillars. Once they reach the edge of the mine, they work
backwards in whats called retreat mining.
Long Wall Mining hydraulic roof supports are used while a
cutting head goes back and forth along the coal face. When the
cutting head reaches one end of the coal face, it dumps the coal
onto a conveyor belt.

Gasification of coal
Raw materials
Coke or non-coking coal is the feed material used.

Chemical reaction
The general type of reaction involved is :

4C + O2 + 2H2O

4CO +2H2

Methods
Direct
Coal + Hydrogen (H2) Linear + Ring Type
Hydrocarbons ( CxHy Catalyst )

Indirect
Gasification: Coal + Oxygen + Steam Syngas
(H2 + CO)
Syngas Conversion: H2 + CO Linear
Hydrocarbons (CxHy) or Chemicals

Process description : Several major processes have been used

commercially to produce town gas or synthesis gas
from coal.
One of these is the Koppers Totzek process, an
important feature of this process is that the
equipment can be converted to liquid fuel feed.
Coal dust and oxygen are blown into a refractorylined gasification chamber; the inlet speeds are
higher than the velocity of flame propagation.
Hot gases leave the top of the chamber and ash falls
into a water seal at the base of the chamber.
Another is lurgi process, it feeds the coal particles
into the top of a fixed bed gasifier with oxygen and
steam flowing upward from a grate at the base.

 Ash is continuously discharged from a lock

hopper at the base of the gasifier.
In either case, the gas is cooled and purified
before use.
Also, there are so called slagging generators
which operate at sufficiently high temperatures
to melt the ash.
A flux material such as lime, may be added if
necessary.
The solid by products are then tapped as liquid
slag.
Such processes can be operated on coking
varieties of coal.

The UK is developing underground coal gasification (UCG)!

This is a very clean method, as only gas is removed

from the ground, leaving all the overburden and ash
underground.

 Major engineering problems : Design of economic process for the

pulverization of coal as a feed material.
Availability of tonnage Oxygen at the plant
site at low-cost.
Careful design of lock hoppers, etc., to
prevent oxygen coal dust explosions.
Handling variations in the grades of coal
feed.

Hydrogenation
A chemical reaction that results in the addition
of hydrogen (H2)
Usually to reduce or saturated the organic
compounds
At high temperatures the addition of hydrogen
to hydrocarbons does not require a catalyst
Under 480 C the catalyst are platinum,
palladium, rhodium and ruthenium

Hydrogenation of coal
Raw materials :-

The coal may be fed to hydrogenation processes in

various ways- each of them requiring powdered
coal. Then various alternatives are possible:
a) Treating the powdered coal by solvent extraction
and then hydrogenating the extract.
b) Forming a paste from pulverized coal and a heavy
oil which is fed to the hydrogenation reactor.
c) Feeding the powdered coal directly with a stream of
hydrogen to the hydrogenation reactor.

Process description : In a processes for direct hydrogenation of powdered

coal, the powdered coal is fed into a lock hopper,
pressurized by hydrogen, and fed by a screw
conveyor into the main hydrogen feed stream.
The reaction is carried out at 400-1000C and at
pressures of 500 to 3000 psi.
Reaction times are of order of 1 to 10 minutes in a
jacketed tubular reactor.
About 1% of a tungsten or molybdenum oxide
catalyst may be used; a catalyst solution is used to
impregnate the coal to introduce it to the reaction
zone.
The reaction products pass to a hot separator where
solids are removed.
The product is then condensed and the liquid product
separated by fractionation.

 Major engineering problems :

Hydrogen embrittlement of reactor steels which

is solved by proper choice of high chromium
molybdenum steels as materials of construction.
Complex separation process involved in
separating multi component mixtures of aromatic
hydrocarbons, nitrogen compounds and phenols.

Coal as a Fossil Fuel

Coal is called a fossil fuel
because it was made from
plants that were once
alive.
The energy in coal came
from the sun.

Next, power plants burn

the coal to make
electricity.

 Coal is burned in a
large furnace to heat
water to make
steam.
Steam pushes the
blades of a turbine.
The turbine is
connected to a
generator, which
makes electricity.

How Coal turns into

Electricity

1. Coal is
burned,
which
produces
steam.

2. Steam
turns a
turbine.

3. The
turbine
generates
electricit
y.

4. Power
lines carry
the
electricity
to our
homes.

How Coal turns into

Electricity

Coal is one of our most important

energy sources!
Most of the
coal mined
in the world
is used to
make
electricity.

Coal is one of our most important

energy sources!

In 2010, more than

half (51%) of the
country's 3.9 trillion
kilowatt-hours of
electricity used coal
as its source of energy.

Coal is also used in steel and

iron production.

64% of steel production worldwide comes

from iron made in blast furnaces that use
coal!

THANK YOU