PERFORMANCE OF DIFFERENT CATALYSTS ON THE COPROCESSING OF A DEMINERALIZED CATALAN LIGNITE

This work studies the influence of Fe, Fe-Mo, Co-Mo, and Ni-Mo catalys ts on the coprocessing of a Lignite from the Bergueda (Catalonia, Spai n) with a vacuum residue of petroleum. Given the high mineral matter c ontent of this Lignite, it was demineralized to prevent any interferen ce with the catalyst performance. A set of supported Fe-based catalyst s as well as two commercial hydroprocessing catalysts were tested. The experimental results show that coal conversion increases with all cat alysts, although those containing molybdenum yield the largest values (50-60%). The percentage of iron in the catalyst does not have a stron g influence on this conversion, suggesting functional problems. Signif icantly high coal conversions are also obtained in experiments with al umina (approximate to 40%) or without catalyst (approximate to 44%), s uggesting that the demineralization process causes fragmentation of th e coal structure. The production of oils is larger with the Mo-based c atalysts (19-25%) and on the order of 8% for the Fe-based catalysts.