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Desulfurization of Morupule Coal with Subcritical Aqueous Ethanol Extraction

Nermark, Fiona M. LU ; Mapolelo, Mmilili M. LU ; Darkwa, James LU ; Wendt, Ola F. LU and Turner, Charlotta LU (2022) In ChemistryOpen 11(11).
Abstract

Coal combustion greatly contributes to global emissions of toxic gases into the atmosphere, with sulfur emissions as one of the prominent pollutants in addition to carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, Botswana utilizes Morupule's sub-bituminous coal with average sulfur and ash contents, as determined in this study being 1.9 and 24.4 % by weight with an average calorific value of 22 MJ Kg−1 to generate electricity. We report an optimized extraction method for reducing total sulfur in Morupule coal from 1.9±0.2 to 0.43±0.02 wt.% at optimum conditions of ethanol/water (90/10, v/v %) at 129 °C (105 bars) in 10 minutes. A Box–Behnken experimental design was employed to select the optimal conditions of temperature (100–180 °C), water... (More)

Coal combustion greatly contributes to global emissions of toxic gases into the atmosphere, with sulfur emissions as one of the prominent pollutants in addition to carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, Botswana utilizes Morupule's sub-bituminous coal with average sulfur and ash contents, as determined in this study being 1.9 and 24.4 % by weight with an average calorific value of 22 MJ Kg−1 to generate electricity. We report an optimized extraction method for reducing total sulfur in Morupule coal from 1.9±0.2 to 0.43±0.02 wt.% at optimum conditions of ethanol/water (90/10, v/v %) at 129 °C (105 bars) in 10 minutes. A Box–Behnken experimental design was employed to select the optimal conditions of temperature (100–180 °C), water proportion in ethanol (10–90, v/v %) and extraction time (10–30 minutes), thus reducing the total sulfur under these mild conditions compared to conventional extraction. The optimized conditions were however not efficient in removing ash.

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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
desulfurization, Morupule coal, pressurized liquid extraction, subcritical water extraction, sulfur
in
ChemistryOpen
volume
11
issue
11
article number
e202200046
publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
external identifiers
  • pmid:35946993
  • scopus:85135773792
DOI
10.1002/open.202200046
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a0128171-0f90-471a-b9d4-f34cfb4babe6
date added to LUP
2022-09-20 15:44:25
date last changed
2024-04-18 16:44:40
@article{a0128171-0f90-471a-b9d4-f34cfb4babe6,
  abstract     = {{<p>Coal combustion greatly contributes to global emissions of toxic gases into the atmosphere, with sulfur emissions as one of the prominent pollutants in addition to carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, Botswana utilizes Morupule's sub-bituminous coal with average sulfur and ash contents, as determined in this study being 1.9 and 24.4 % by weight with an average calorific value of 22 MJ Kg<sup>−1</sup> to generate electricity. We report an optimized extraction method for reducing total sulfur in Morupule coal from 1.9±0.2 to 0.43±0.02 wt.% at optimum conditions of ethanol/water (90/10, v/v %) at 129 °C (105 bars) in 10 minutes. A Box–Behnken experimental design was employed to select the optimal conditions of temperature (100–180 °C), water proportion in ethanol (10–90, v/v %) and extraction time (10–30 minutes), thus reducing the total sulfur under these mild conditions compared to conventional extraction. The optimized conditions were however not efficient in removing ash.</p>}},
  author       = {{Nermark, Fiona M. and Mapolelo, Mmilili M. and Darkwa, James and Wendt, Ola F. and Turner, Charlotta}},
  keywords     = {{desulfurization; Morupule coal; pressurized liquid extraction; subcritical water extraction; sulfur}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{11}},
  publisher    = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
  series       = {{ChemistryOpen}},
  title        = {{Desulfurization of Morupule Coal with Subcritical Aqueous Ethanol Extraction}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/open.202200046}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/open.202200046}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}