Degradative solvent extraction of low rank coal: Structural evolution of extraction products

The degradative solvent extraction method was proposed to convert low rank coals into carbon-enriched products under mild condition. However, limitations in the understanding of the structure evolution of prod-ucts and reaction mechanism of the extraction process hinder the targeted regulation of the products. Therefore, in this work the structural evolution of products during the extraction for different types of coals and by different types of solvents were investigated. Synthesized molecular structural models of the products were constructed and the reaction mechanism was then discussed. Results show that the industrial compounding solvent (ICS) is capable of extracting more single-ring aromatic organics from coals and increasing the yields of the main products by approximately 10% compared to 1-methylnaphthalene. During the extraction process, the main reaction of the sub-bituminous coal is the breakage of unstable chemical bonds and functional groups, while the reaction of lignite is the thermal decomposition and deoxygenation of massive small molecules in the coal. Moreover, the ICS promotes aromatization reactions during the extraction, which indicates that the ICS is the appropriate industrial solvent for the degradative solvent extraction. This research proved a theoretical guidance for the industrialization of DSE technology and the targeted regulation of the products.