This report describes work completed during the fourth quarter of a three year project to study the effects of mild chemical pretreatment on coal dissolution reactivity during low severity liquefaction or coal/oil coprocessing. The overall objective of this research is to elucidate changes in the chemical and physical structure of coal by pretreating with methanol or other simple organic solvent and a trace amount of hydrochloric acid and measure the influence of these changes on coal dissolution reactivity. This work is part of a larger effort to develop a new coal liquefaction or coal/oil coprocessing scheme consisting of three main process steps: (1) mile pretreatment of the feed coal to enhance dissolution reactivity and dry the coal, (2) low severity thermal dissolution of the pretreated coal to obtain a very reactive coal-derived residual material amenable to upgrading, and (3) catalytic upgrading of the residual products to distillate liquids.

This report describes work completed during the fourth quarter of a three year project to study the effects of mild chemical pretreatment on coal dissolution reactivity during low severity liquefaction or coal/oil coprocessing. The overall objective of this research is to elucidate changes in the chemical and physical structure of coal by pretreating with methanol or other simple organic solvent and a trace amount of hydrochloric acid and measure the influence of these changes on coal dissolution reactivity. This work is part of a larger effort to develop a new coal liquefaction or coal/oil coprocessing scheme consisting of three main process steps: (1) mile pretreatment of the feed coal to enhance dissolution reactivity and dry the coal, (2) low severity thermal dissolution of the pretreated coal to obtain a very reactive coal-derived residual material amenable to upgrading, and (3) catalytic upgrading of the residual products to distillate liquids.