Study on influence of catalysts on product distribution during liquefaction of Pakistani coal

The influence of a group of metal oxide, hydroxide and chloride catalysts on the yields of liquefied products has been identified. The results of hydrogenation experiments performed with varying coal to catalyst ratio for a slurry of lignite coal in toluene demonstrated that metal loadings even as low as 1% proved effective for enhancement of yields. Among the catalysts employed, halide catalysts proved to be the most effective in terms of high yields of desirable liquefied products.