Title: Insight into the molecular structure of Huolinguole lignite via supercritical methanolysis and ambient characterisation

Authors: Lu Chen; Xing Fan; Ji-Liang Zhu; Wen-Sheng Fan; Hua Li; Chu-Fan Wang; Miao Wang

Addresses: Key Laboratory of Coal Processing and Efficient Utilization (Ministry of Education), China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, China ' School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Key Laboratory of Coal Processing and Efficient Utilization (Ministry of Education), China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, China; Jiangxi Key Laboratory for Mass Spectrometry and Instrumentation, East China Institute of Technology, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330013, China ' Key Laboratory of Coal Processing and Efficient Utilization (Ministry of Education), China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, China ' No. 1 High School of Huaibei, Huaibei, Anhui 235000, China ' Huaibei Daily, Huaibei, Anhui 235000, China ' Key Laboratory of Coal Processing and Efficient Utilization (Ministry of Education), China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, China ' Key Laboratory of Coal Processing and Efficient Utilization (Ministry of Education), China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, China

Abstract: Supercritical methanolysis of Huolinguole lignite (HL) was carried out at 300°C. The raw coal and the corresponding dried supercritical methanolysis product/residue were characterised using a time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF MS) equipped with a direct analysis in real time (DART) ion source to obtain molecular structure feature of HL. Fast and accurate characterisation of molecular information was realised by the combination of DART and TOF MS. A bunch of scattered small molecules with molecular weight from 350 to 500 Da were separated from the macromolecular network of HL by supercritical methanolysis. Desorption and ionisation under ambient condition allowed the detection of small molecules scattered inside the macromolecular network of HL, which are hard to be characterised by other analytical methods at the molecular level. The distributions of carbon number and double bond equivalent for the extract are 3 to 60 and 0 to 25, respectively, which are much wider than those for raw coal, filter cake and residue. [Received: February 3, 2017; Accepted: September 20, 2017]

Keywords: coal structure; direct analysis in real time; DART; lignite; mass spectrometry; supercritical methanolysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2018.091542

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2018 Vol.18 No.1/2, pp.106 - 117

Received: 03 Feb 2017
Accepted: 20 Sep 2017
Published online: 04 May 2018 *

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