Sylwia Czajkowska

Coal reactive sites involved in hydrogen transfer from an H-donor studied by field ionization mass spectrometry

Abstract The objectives of this study have been to seek answers to the following issues: do differently ranked coals react with an H-donor at a temperature range that is characteristic of the “preconversion” step in liquefaction; and if they react, what structural subunits in coal material are active in the reaction? Three methodological steps were used to find the answer to the questions raised: (1) Determination of the amount of hydrogen transferred from tetralin at 330–350°C to the samples of twenty coals; (2) characterization of the chemical structure of the coals by wet-chemical analysis and low and high resolution pyrolysis-field ionization mass spectrometry; and (3) correlation analysis of the data obtained. Ether bonds, phenols, some aromatics and hydroaromatics were found to be active in the transfer. By comparing the present and previous results referring to liquefaction and low temperature pyrolysis of the same set of coals, it was found that despite minor differences, the same types of structural subunits are active in the two processes. For this reason, it is possible to predict liquefaction behavior of coals from their pyrolytic behaviour and vice versa .