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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorsMuthu S. Sundaram, Meyer Steinberg
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This invention relates to a process for converting solid carbonaceous material, such as coal, to liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons utilizing methane, generally at a residence time of about 20-120 minutes at a temperature of 250.degree.-750.degree. C., preferably 350.degree.-450.degree. C., pressurized up to 6000 psi, and preferably in the 1000-2500 psi range, preferably directly utilizing methane 50-100% by volume in a mix of methane and hydrogen. A hydrogen donor solvent or liquid vehicle such as tetralin, tetrahydroquinoline, piperidine, and pyrolidine may be used in a slurry mix where the solvent feed is 0-100% by weight of the coal or carbonaceous feed. Carbonaceous feed material can either be natural, such as coal, wood, oil shale, petroleum, tar sands, etc., or man-made residual oils, tars, and heavy hydrocarbon residues from other processing systems.
A process for the liquefaction of carbonaceous materials to produce predominantly liquid hydrocarbons comprising heating said materials in a liquefaction reactor to a temperature in the range of 250.degree. C. to 750.degree. C., under pressure up to 6000 psi of a gas containing methane in the initial gas feed at 50-100% by volume for a residence time in the liquefaction reactor of about 20-120 minutes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.