Depolymerization Study of Pakistani Lignite Coal Influence of Pre‐treatments on Product Slate

Influence of pretreatments, i.e., demineralization and pre‐soaking in some solvents on the yields of liquefied products obtained from hydro‐depolymerization of Pakistani coal in a pool of hydrogen has been discussed. Results of hydrogenation experiments demonstrated that demineralizing the coal sample prior to liquefaction caused the yields to decrease compared with the virgin coal samples. The contribution of mineral matter of coal has been evaluated by comparing the yields of liquid products of virgin and leached samples. Increase in the yields obtained from the hydrogenation experiments of swollen coal samples was not satisfactorily significant.     

Spectral Analysis of Some Distillates from Asphalt Cracking and Evaluation of UTIMAC as Cracking Catalyst

This paper demonstrates the spectral analysis of some distillates obtained from asphalt cracking in the presence of a conventional expensive catalyst, i.e., HZSM‐5, and local cheap and readily available clay, i.e., UTIMAC. Each distillate was fractionated into pentane soluble (PI) and pentane insoluble (PI) fractions based on solubility in n, pentane. Both PS and PI obtained in the case of HZSM‐5 and UTIMAC were analyzed by ¹H‐NMR spectrophotometry using CDCl₃ as dissolving solvent and tetramethylsilane (TMS) as internal standard. It is evident from the profiles that both catalysts caused the generation of some peaks ascribed to methylene and methene configurations in the aliphatic region. Bands corresponding to aromatic configurations were also generated. The results indicate that the cheap local catalyst used has comparable suitability with the conventional expensive catalyst in terms of asphalt cracking.     

Mechanism of Butane Transformation

Catalytic activity and aromatic selectivity of n‐butane transformation were studied over various MFI type zeolites. From the data obtained, a reaction mechanism is suggested for different catalyst systems. It is visualized that in gallium doped catalysts, Ga³⁺ directly takes part both in cracking and dehydrogenation. The [Ga CH₃]²⁺ and [GaH]²⁺ species formed during cracking and dehydrogenation require protonic sites for regeneration of Ga³⁺ species. An alternative mechanism was suggested for dehydrogenation and cracking by Ga³⁺ without the involvement of protonic sites. However a protonic site would be required for aromatization. In case of gallosilicates a one step mechanism is suggested for cracking and dehydrogenation reaction which does not require the presence of protonic sites in the catalyst system.     

Environmentally Friendly Recovery and Characterization of Oil from Used Engine Lubricants

The present paper demonstrates the review of some acid processes as well as development of some new solvent processes for reclamation of used lubricating oils. The conventional processes are found to be of low yield (? 50%), laborious, time consuming and environmentally hazardous, because of residual acidic sludge. Based on the findings, a new modified Aluminium sulphate‐sodium silicate‐acid‐base method employing a small quantity of acid and giving a high yield (? 60%) is proposed. Further, to avoid use of acid, new regeneration processes based on solvent extraction were investigated. They are termed CCl₄‐alcohol method, Dodecane‐alcohol method and Toluene‐alcohol method. These processes are not only cost effective in terms of complete solvent recovery, but are rapid, less time consuming, more environmentally friendly and gave a high yield (70–75%). The virgin lubricants (Castrol GTX and Rimula‐C) as well as oils recovered by different methods were also characterized physicochemically to determine kinematic viscosity, density, refractive index, carbon distribution, wear scar diameter, % Conradson carbon residue, % ash, % chloride, pour point, etc. Results obtained show that many of the physico‐chemical properties of the recovered oils are in good agreement with those of virgin oils. The n.d.M analysis was also performed which shows that virgin oils have 73 ± 3% paraffinic carbon, 26 ± 3% naphthenic carbon and about 1% aromatic carbon. The recovered oils also showed nearly the same chemical composition. The UV‐Visible spectra of the recovered oils are all similar to those of virgin lubricants. The results suggest that the oils recovered by solvent treatments, particularly Dodecan‐alcohol and Toluene‐alcohol methods, may serve for lubrication purposes and can be rendered as excellent as virgin lubricants with the addition of certain additives. The proposed methods may be considered as alternative cost effective green techniques for acid reclamation processes and being the motivation of the present investigation.     

Depolymerization Study of Pakistani Coal Solvent Evaluation Study

Depolymerization of an indigenous coal was studied in a variety of solvents at a temperature of 400 ± 10 °C in a hydrogen environment using a micro autoclave reactor for a time duration of 30 minutes. Some aliphatic, aromatic solvents as well as viscous petroleum based oils and pitches were used for evaluating them as liquefaction solvents. Amongst aliphatic solvents, 2‐propanol, and amongst aromatics, p‐creosol, gave highest yields. Petroleum pitches also proved effective, particularly their blends which caused significant depolymerization of the coal under study leading to formation of liquid products.     

Depolymerization Study of Pakistani Coal in a Hydrogen Atmosphere. Effect of Operating Conditions

A Pakistani coal was de‐polymerized/liquefied in toluene in a 1000 mL micro autoclave. Experiments have been performed in a pool of hydrogen under varying operating conditions of temperature, residence time, hydrogen pressure (cold), coal/solvent ratio and coal particle size. A pronounced effect of all these process variables has been noted on the yields of liquefied products, i.e., THF solubles, n‐pentane solubles, and n‐pentane insolubles. Extraction temperature of 450 °C, residence time of 1 hour, hydrogen pressure of 30 kgf/cm², coal/solvent ratio of 1:2 and coal particle size of 53–45 μm were found optimum for maximum conversion of Pakistani coal into liquefied products.     

A facile and efficient multicomponent ultrasound-assisted “on water” synthesis of benzodiazepine ring

Molecular Diversity - A facile and efficient multicomponent synthesis of benzodiazepine ring in water under ultrasound irradiation is reported first time. The current procedure escapes traditional...