A study on upgrading light coal tar to aerospace fuel

In this paper, light coal tar derived from China Coal Research Institute was used as raw material to conduct a research on developing a chemical process to produce aerospace fuel. In view of the characteristics of the coal tar, a route comprising of primary desulfurization- fraction cutting- secondary desulfurization- hydrogenation saturation was designed. The optimal pressure and temperature were determined to be 5 MPa and 300 °C for hydrodesulfurization on NiMoW/Al₂O₃, and 5 MPa and 240 °C for hydrogenation saturation on Pd/Al₂O₃. After treatment, the sulfur content decreased from 323 to 8.5 mg/kg. The benzenes, naphthalenes and other aromatic compounds in the raw oil were converted into cycloalkanes. The main components of the final product were cycloalkanes and chain alkanes, and the contents were 58.38% and 29.65% respectively. The final product exhibited high heating value, low sulfur content and low unsaturated aromatic hydrocarbons, which possessed great potential to be used in aerospace fuels.