Dewatering and upgrading of Inner Mongolia Xilingol lignite in non-polar solvent (tetrahydronaphthalene

THN) were carried out in a miniature autoclave. The changes of organic functional groups in coal samples at different dewatering temperature were analyzed based on Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) analyzer. The fitting calculation for FT-IR spectra has been carried out. Besides

a semi-quantitative analysis for characteristics of chemical structure change was presented. The pyrolysis and gasification reactivity and distributive rules of gas phase product during pyrolysis and gasification of coal with various dewatering temperature were carried out by means of thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and a bench-scale fixed-bed pyrolysis reactor. The kinetic parameters of coal samples were calculated within the range of the maximum weight loss rate. The results showed that the non-polar solvent THN treatment was effective in dewatering and upgrading of Xilingol lignite. The C O bonds started decomposing between 150 and 200℃

while the aromatic C C bonds in the aromatic ring remained relatively stable. With increasing dewatering temperature

the content of aromatic hydrogen decreased first and then increased

while the content of aliphatic hydrogen increased first and then decreased. The aromaticity and aromatic carbon increased gradually with increasing dewatering temperature. When dewatering temperature was higher

the cumulative yields of gas phase products of H2

CH4 and CO were increased and CO2 was dropped during pyrolysis. The reaction activation energy of the dewatered coal increased with increasing dewatering temperature

decreasing the pyrolysis reactivity of the coal samples.