Production of coal-based fuels and value-added products: Processes using coal and coal liquids with petroleum refining solvents

Liquid fuels produced directly from coal and coal tar by-products utilize the inherent structures in coal. Research continues on hydrotreating of blends, to improve liquid quality in the most economical way. When co-coking, we are producing quality coke for anode applications, although we are still not meeting specifications of mineral content; liquids are primarily fuel and binder pitch. Future work will incorporate improving the liquid quality. Extraction is expected to mitigate issues with blending/hydrotreating and co-coking. The advantages to utilizing refining solvents/coal/coal tar and processes that exist within a refinery to produce particular fuels and value-added materials are (1) implementation could be much faster than projected for commercial gasification in the US and (2) production of fuels and carbon materials with specific uses that F-T coal liquids may not be suitable for.