Bulletin of the Geological Society of Malaysia, Volume 60, December 2014, pp. 95 – 99

Direct liquefaction on low rank Batu Arang coals of Malaysia: Influence of petrographic composition

Wan Hasiah Abdullah¹*, Vladimir Kiselev², Yousif M. Makeen¹, Togunwa Serifat Olayinka¹ & Khairul Azlan Mustapha¹

¹Department of Geology, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*Email address: wanhasia@um.edu.my
²Novosibirsk city, Krolev street 21, Russia

Abstract: A direct liquefaction study was performed on a set of low-rank Malaysian coals from Batu Arang, Selangor in Peninsular Malaysia. The analysis was carried out in a 1000 mL high temperature and high-pressure reactor batch-wise system using tetralin as hydrogen donor solvent, at temperature of 420°С and at pressure of 4МРа. The influence of maceral composition was investigated based on comparison made on the percentage of coal conversion and product yield for the three coals that were analysed. These analysed samples contain reactive macerals (vitrinite + exinite) in the range of 76% – 92%. The high coal conversion and oil+gas yields are attributed predominantly to the high content of reactive macerals of vitrinite and exinite maceral groups, with some contribution from the inertinite maceral group. This suggests the analysed Batu Arang coals possess good potential to act as an alternative liquid fuel in the future through direct liquefaction process.

Keywords: coal conversion, coal liquefaction, reactive macerals, semifusinite, ‘oil+gas’ yields

https://doi.org/10.7186/bgsm60201410