Coal Liquefaction

Coal liquefaction is a process of turning coal into liquid hydrocarbon products

especially crude oil. The most common process in coal liquefaction is "Coal to
Liquid Fuels" (CTL). Coal liquefaction was originally developed at the beginning
of the 20th century was extensively used by Germany in World War II to
produce gasoline, but the process has remained commercially unviable because its
cost has been significantly higher than that of producing gasoline from petroleum.
Coal liquefaction provided 92% of Germany's air fuel and over 50% of its
petroleum supply in the 1940s.

It was also an integral part of Adolf Hitler's four-year plan of 1936, and became a
part of German industry during World War II. During the mid-1930s, companies
like IG Farben and Ruhrchemie started industrial production of synthetic fuels
obtained from coal. This led to the construction of twelve Direct liquefaction plants
using hydrogenation and nine Indirect liquefaction plants using Fischer–Tropsch
synthesis in Germany by the end of World War II.

South Africa also developed its own CTL technology in the 1950s by the South
African Coal, Oil and Gas Corporation (Sasol) which was founded in 1950 as part
of industrialization process. South Africa had no domestic oil reserves, and this
made the country very vulnerable to disruption of supplies coming from outside.
For years its principal product was synthetic fuel, and this business enjoyed
significant government protection in South Africa even though it was generally
much more expensive to produce oil from coal than from natural petroleum but
the political as well as economic importance of achieving as much independence as
possible in this sphere was sufficient to overcome any objections. CT L played a
significant role in South Africa's economy, providing around 30% of its domestic
fuel demand.

The United States military also has a program to promote alternative fuels and
utilizing vast domestic U.S. coal reserves to produce fuels through coal
liquefaction .It would obviously have economic and security advantages. But with
their higher carbon footprint, fuels from coal liquefaction face the significant
challenge of reducing carbon emission.
Coal liquefaction technologies have steadily improved since the World War 2 and
technical developments have resulted in a number of systems capable of handling a
wide variety of coal types. However, only a few companies based on generating
liquid fuels from coal have been successful, most of them based on ICL(indirect)
technology. Among them, arguably the most successful one has been Sasol in
South Africa. CTL also received new interest in the early 2000s as a possible
mitigation option for reducing oil dependence, at a time when rising oil prices
forced investors and business venturers rethink already existing supply chains for
liquid fuels.

Processes used:
Liquefaction technologies fall into two categories: direct (DCL) and indirect
liquefaction (ICL) processes. Direct processes are based on approaches of
carbonization and hydrogenation. Indirect liquefaction processes generally involve
gasification of coal to a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, often known as
synthesis gas or simply syngas.

The best-known CTL process is Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FT), named after its
inventors Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch . The FT synthesis is the basis for
indirect coal liquefaction (ICL) technology. Friedrich Bergius, also a German
chemist, invented direct coal liquefaction (DCL) as a way to convert lignite into
synthetic oil in 1913. The DCL (direct) and ICL (indirect) plants effectively
complemented each other rather than competing. Reason for this is that coal
hydrogenation yields high quality gasoline for aviation, while FT synthesis chiefly
produced high-quality diesel, lubrication oil, and waxes. The DCL plants were also
more developed, as lignite – the only coal available in many parts of Germany –
worked better with hydrogenation (DCL) than with FT synthesis(ICL).

Indirect liquefaction is mostly the type of technology used in the U.S. It involves
two steps, first is the turning of coal into a gas mixture of hydrogen and carbon
monoxide called syngas. Then,in second step the gas is turned into a liquid
hydrocarbon that is used as fuel. This is done most often through the Fischer-
Tropsch process or methanol synthesis. It also involves chemically refining the
syngas to eliminate impurities, including sulfur and nitrogen, and converting it into
either gasoline or diesel. This fuel is said to be cleaner than gasoline as it is sulfur-
free.

In methanol synthesis syngas is converted to methanol which is converted

to alkanes using a zeolite catalyst. This process was developed by Mobil in the
early 1970s. Methanation reaction converts syngas to natural gas. The Great Plains
Gasification Plant in North Dakota is a coal-to-natural gas facility producing
around 160 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. It is using indirect
liquefaction technology and has been in operation since 1984.

On the other hand, direct liquefaction processes convert coal into liquids directly
without having to rely on intermediate steps by breaking down the organic
structure of coal with application of hydrogen-donor solvent, often at high
pressures and temperatures in absence of oxygen. Direct processes are based on
methods like carbonization, pyrolysis, and hydrogenation.

The carbonization conversion generally occurs through pyrolysis or destructive

distillation. It produces condensable coal tar, oil and water vapor and non-
condensable synthetic gas.

A notable instance of carbonization is the Karrick process. In this low-

temperature carbonization process, coal is heated at 350 °C to 750 °C in the
absence of oxygen. These temperatures optimize the production of coal tar richer
in lighter hydrocarbons than normal coal tar. However, any produced liquids are
mostly a by-product and the main product is semi-coke - a solid and smokeless
fuel. But the economic viability of this technology is questionable.

Another method for direct conversion of coal to liquids by hydrogenation process

is the Bergius process.It was developed by Friedrich Bergius in 1913. In this
process, coal is mixed with heavy oil and an Iron catalyst is typically added to the
mixture. The reaction occurs at between 400 °C to 500 °C and at pressures of 20
to 70 MPa.
Impact on environment:
Typically coal liquefaction processes are associated with significant CO2 emissions
from the gasification process as well as from generation of necessary heat and
electricity inputs to the liquefaction reactors, thus releasing greenhouse gases that
can cause global warming .The technology is extremely inefficient, particularly
when the emissions are not captured. Without carbon capture technology, coal-to-
liquid fuel produces twice the emissions as gasoline from conventional crude oil;
about 22 kilograms of CO2 for liquid coal compared with 12 kilograms for
conventional gasoline.

Coal contains about twice the amount of carbon per unit of energy compared to
natural gas, and about 20 percent more than petroleum. Then, turning coal into
liquid fuel produces large amounts of CO2 at the plant and again when the fuel is
burned by the vehicle.

There is also some debate over the technology's efficiency in cases where Carbon
Capture and Storage is implemented. Most accounts, including a report by the
EPA, say that even if 90 percent of emissions are captured, liquid coal still
produces more emissions than gasoline, when total emissions i.e,from the point of
extraction through consumption are considered. However,a study by the National
Energy Technology Laboratory , found that when coal-to-liquid plants use carbon
capture, the lifecycle emissions will be five to 10 percent lower than conventional
petroleum.In the end,it all comes down to carbon capture technonlogies and even
in that regard it is not gaurranted that companies will even use it as the use of this
technonlogy further increases the cost of production of petroleum.

Coal liquefaction is also a water-intensive process, using about ten gallons of water
for every gallon of fuel produced. According to the Argonne National Laboratory,
gasoline production from crude uses around 11to 26 litres of water for every litre
of gasoline produced. Thus, high water consumption in the chemical processes is
another adverse environmental effect.