Characterization of liquids derived from laboratory coking of decant oil and co-coking of pittsburgh seam bituminous coal with decant oil

In this study, decant oil and a blend of Pittsburgh seam bituminous coal with decant oil were subjected to coking and co-coking in a laboratory-scale delayed coker. Higher yields of coke and gas were obtained from co-coking than from coking. Coal addition into the feedstock resulted in lighter overhead liquid. GC/MS analyses of gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel show that co-coking of coal/decant oil gave higher quantity aromatic components than that of coking of decant oil alone. Simulated distillation gas chromatography analyses of overhead liquids and GC/MS analyses of vacuum fractions show that when coal was reacted with a decant oil, the coal constituents contributed to the distillable liquids. To address the reproducibility of the liquid products, overhead liquid samples collected at the first, third, and fifth hours of experiments of 6 h duration were evaluated using simulated distillation gas chromatography and ¹H and ¹³C NMR. NMR analyses of the liquid products showed that, even though there were slight changes in the ¹H and ¹³C spectra, the standard deviation was low for the time-dependent samples. Simulated distillation gas chromatography showed that the yields of refinery boiling range materials (i.e., gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, and fuel oil cuts) were reproducible between runs. Fractionation of the overhead liquids into refinery boiling range materials (gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, fuel oil fractions) showed that the boiling range materials and chemical compositions of fractions were found to be reproducible.