Pretreatment process to remove oxygen from coal en route to a coal pyolysis process as a means of improving the quality of the hydrocarbon liquid product

A coal pyrolysis pretreatment apparatus comprising a pretreatment vessel for holding a bed of coal particles, a preheater for heating the bed of coal particles to a temperature below the coal pyrolysis temperature range, an enclosure around the vessel for preventing air from contacting the bed of coal particles, an oxygen remover for removing the oxygen released from the heated coal particles and transporting it away from the enclosure so that the partial pressure of oxygen in the pretreatment region is kept low, further comprising a collector for collecting non-condensable combustible gases from coal pyrolysis, and a burner for partially burning the collected non-condensable combustible gases and supplying hot, partially combusted non-condensable gases from the burner to the bed of coal particles to serve as a sweep gas for heating and removing oxygen from the bed of coal particles.

A coal pyrolysis pretreatment apparatus comprising a pretreatment vessel for holding a bed of coal particles, a preheater for heating the bed of coal particles to a temperature below the coal pyrolysis temperature range, an enclosure around the vessel for preventing air from contacting the bed of coal particles, an oxygen remover for removing the oxygen released from the heated coal particles and transporting it away from the enclosure so that the partial pressure of oxygen in the pretreatment region is kept low, wherein the preheater comprises a furnance holding ceramic balls of a size larger than coal particles in the bed, and provisions for circulating the ceramic balls from the furnance to the bed of coal particles for heating the coal particles in the pretreatment vessel and recycling the balls through the furnance for reheating.

A coal pyrolysis pretreatment process comprising heating the bed of coal particles to a temperature below the coal pyrolysis temperature range, preventing air from contacting the bed of coal particles, and removing oxygen released from the heated coal particles from the enclosure before subjecting the coal to pyrolysis, supplying low oxygen flue gas as oxygen removal gas to the bed of coal.

A coal pyrolysis pretreatment process comprising heating the bed of coal particles to a temperature below the coal pyrolysis temperature range, preventing air from contacting the bed of coal particles, and removing oxygen released from the heated coal particles from the enclosure before subjecting the coal to pyrolysis, collecting non-condensable combustible gases from coal pyrolysis, and burning the collected non-condensable combustible gases for heating the bed of coal, and supplying partially combusted collected non-condensable gases from the burner to the bed of coal particles for removing oxygen from the bed of coal particles.

A coal pyrolysis pretreatment process comprising heating the bed of coal particles to a temperature below the coal pyrolysis temperature range, preventing air from contacting the bed of coal particles, and removing oxygen released from the heated coal particles from the enclosure before subjecting the coal to pyrolysis, wherein the heating comprises heating in a furnace ceramic balls of a size larger than coal particles in the bed, and circulating the heated ceramic balls from the furnace to the bed of coal particles for heating the coal particles in the vessel and recycling the balls through the furnace.