Description |
Two methods of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were developed £o separate coal derived liquids (CDL) obtained from the University of Utah's coiled tube, short residence time, hydroliquefaction reactor. The fractions collected from these chromatographic separations were further analyzed by HPLC, gas chromatography (GC), infrared spectrometry (IR) and gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS), to determine the types of compounds present in the liquids. The first method utilized an amino phase bonded to viPorasil in the HPLC column to separate the heptane soluble fraction of the CDL into three fractions. The first fraction, eluted by heptane, consisted of saturated and aromatic hydrocarbon molecules. The second fraction was eluted during column backflush with heptane and consisted primarily of polar molecules. The third fraction, eluted by dichloromethane/ethanol (90/10), consisted of more polar molecules. The second method utilized a phenyl phase bonded to yPorasil in the HPLC column to separate the heptane soluble CDL into two fractions. The first fraction contained mostly nonpolar molecules and was eluted with heptane. The second, more polar fraction, was eluted with a heptane-dichloromethane/ethanol (90/10) gradient. The fractions were analyzed by IR for possible functional groups, by GC to determine the types of compounds present, and by GC/MS analysis to confirm the compound types present. The GC/MS data demonstrated that nonpolar fractions contained primarily saturated, alkyl benzene, alkyl tetralin and other alkyl aromatic hydrocarbon molecules. The more polar materials, eluted in the second and third fractions, consisted of higher molecular weight aromatic compounds and polar molecules such as phenols and naphthols. The results agree with earlier work on these CDL. |