| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MAINWARING D.E. Swinburne Institute of Technology, 応用コロイドセンター, 教授
LARKINS F.P. University of Melbourne, 副学長補佐教授
JACKSON W.R. Monash University, 化学科, 教授
ALLARDICE D.J. Coal Corporation of Victoria, 開発研究部長
IINO Masashi Tohoku University, 反応化学研究所, 教授 (10006306)
MOCHIDA Isao Kyushu University, 機能物質科学研究所, 教授 (20037758)
SANADA Yuzo Hokkaido University, 工学部, 教授 (50109485)
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| Research Abstract |
Victorian brown coal, a vast carbonaceous resource in Australia, is a kind of coal not fully coalfield and has potential usefulness as fuel and chemicals, but is utilized only in some limited forms, mainly due to its high water content. The present joint research program aims at clarifying the nature of the coal and explore possible new ways of its utilization. The main outcome of the program can be summarized as follows.
Brown coals were treated with sulfuric acid and then ion exchanged with iron or tin to prepare highly dispersed catalyst for liquefaction. Also catalytic property of sodium aluminate was examined and was found active for water gas shift reaction and depolymerization of brown coal at 350** in CO/H2O atmosphere (Mochida, Sakanishi, Jackson).
A structural feature of coal was obtained from the effect of iodine addition on spin-lattice relaxation of NMR and was correlated with the reactivity of asphaltenes (Sanada, Jackson, Larkins). A simulation of structural change during dewatering was conducted and a change in reactivity by dry dewatering was indicated (Sanada, Allardice).
Solvent swelling properties of brown coals were compared with that of a subbituminous coal and strong interaction of brown coal with polar solvents was indicated. Also, rheological feature of coal-solvent system was elucidated (Iino, Takanohashi, Mainwaring).
The effect of finely dispersed iron on the carbonization of brown coal was studied and iron was found to affect significantly the electronic properties of carboneceous materials obtained (Nishiyama, Ozaki, Perry, Allardice).
The stability of brown coal briquettes was studied in relation to coal-water interaction and a surface modification was found to improve the stability notably (Guy, Nishiyama, Iino).
The results obtained so far are certainly a basis to design new uses of Victorian brown coals.
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