Supermolecular structure of brown coal and reactivity upon thermochemical destruction

To explore the dependence between properties and reactivity of coals, an approach was developed that modify certain structural groups in coal by selective chemical reactions. In particular, the authors looked at the influence of the supermolecular structure of brown coal on the coal reactivity upon hydrogenation in a medium of tetralin and methanol. Data is given for the hydrogenation and coal liquefaction reaction product/yields which were dependent upon the supermolecular structure of the coal. It was found that the low ability of the organic bulk of natural coal to decompose into low-molecular substances is caused by the inaccessibility of its fragments for tetralin and other larger hydrogen-donor molecules at the initial stages of the transformation.