Development of a Temperature Programmed Identification Technique to Characterize the Organic Sulphur Functional Groups in Coal

Abstract

[...]Meyers [23] explained that dilute warm nitric acid treatment of coal has been found to remove some organic sulphur by oxidation. [...]with a coal containing pyritic sulphur it is not possible to determine the exact organic sulphur species. [...]1 to 2 mg of sulphidised cobalt-molybdenum catalyst (Harshaw 0402) was added to enhance the rate of reduction of the sulphur groups. From the results it can be observed that a similar trend as was observed in the previous cases of treated Harworth and Silverdale coal samples is also followed by treated POW1 coal, i.e., the reduction in the simple thiophenes. Since potassium permanganate is a very strong oxidising agent it resulted in not only the breakdown of the bigger molecules but it also removed a significant amount of various groups. [...]volatile material present in coal, being composed of relatively very small molecular structures, can be extracted by this solvent.