New approaches to study of the liquefaction sapropel products obtained by carrying out the process in supercritical ethanol.

The liquefaction of sapropel in the East Siberian region using ethanol under supercritical conditions (260 °C, 18 MPa) was studied. The influence of the hydrogen atmosphere and the CoMo/Al₂O₃ catalyst on the yield and composition of liquid products was established. The presence of a reactive hydrogen atmosphere and a catalyst increased the conversion of organic mass of sapropel (α) from 41.1 to 75.9 wt.%. Gas chromatographic–mass spectrometry, FT-IR, and NMR spectroscopy methods have shown that the bulk of liquid liquefaction products are esters (30.1−46.6 rel.%), alkyl derivatives of phenol (9.5−21.6 rel.%), and nitrogen-containing compounds (12.9−18.9 rel.%). The addition of hydrogen and a catalyst reduces the content of heteroatomic compounds in liquid products and increases the hydrogen content from 7.26 to 8.86 wt.%. The component composition of liquid products of liquefaction in supercritical ethanol was studied. It was shown that the introduction of a catalyst and hydrogen increases the yield of oils in the maltene fraction by 1.5 times. Structural-group analysis of liquid products showed that the average molecule is characterized by a low molecular weight MW = 200 amu. and contains 11 carbon atoms. The average molecule contains 1 aromatic ring with alkyl substituents and 2 oxygen atoms. The sulfur content is low, about 3 atoms per 100 average molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]