Co-liquefaction of lignite and seaweed (ALGA)

Nowadays, in order to reduce the cost of coal liquefaction and to produce a new liquid fuel alternative to petroleum, it is considered as a more convenient method to liquefy coal and biomass together instead of solely coal liquefaction. The main purpose in liquefaction is to increase the atomic ratio of fuel (H/C). Since the atomic ratio of biomass (H/C) is higher than lignite, the use of coal and biomass together instead of coal alone in liquefaction studies has a positive effect on liquefaction processes. In this study, Tunçbilek lignite and biomass (algae) were liquefied by direct liquefaction under catalytic and noncatalytic conditions. Various iron oxide and molybdenum hexacarbonyl compounds were used as catalysts and tetralin was used as solvent. Liquefaction experiments were carried out by changing solvent/solid ratio 1/1-5/1, reaction temperature 320-400 oC, reaction time 30-90 min, biomass/lignite ratio in the range of 1/1-5/1. The stirring speed was 400 rpm, the catalyst concentration was 3% and the initial nitrogen pressure was fixed at 20 bar. As a result of this study, the most suitable process parameters obtained by considering total conversion is; solvent/solid ratio 3/1, reaction time 60 min, biomass/lignite ratio 4/1, reaction temperature 380 oC. Under these conditions, the highest total conversion is approximately 80% and 77% in catalytic and non-catalytic conditions, respectively. KEY WORDS: Lignite, Algae, Liquefaction, Process parameters, Conversion, Characterization.