Bergius process

The Bergius process is a method of production of liquid hydrocarbons for

use as synthetic fuel by hydrogenation of high-volatile bituminous coal at
high temperature and pressure. It was first developed by Friedrich Bergius
in 1913. In 1931 Bergius was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for
his development of high-pressure chemistry.[1]

Process
The coal is finely ground and dried in a stream of hot gas. The dry product
is mixed with heavy oil recycled from the process. A catalyst is typically
added to the mixture. A number of catalysts have been developed over the
years, including tungsten or molybdenum disulfide, tin or nickel oleate, Friedrich Bergius
and others. Alternatively, iron sulfide present in the coal may have
sufficient catalytic activity for the process, which was the original Bergius
process.[2]

The mixture is pumped into a reactor. The reaction occurs at between 400 and 500 °C and 20 to 70 MPa
hydrogen pressure. The reaction produces heavy oils, middle oils, gasoline, and gases. The overall
reaction can be summarized as follows:

(where x = Degrees of Unsaturation)

The immediate product from the reactor must be stabilized by passing it over a conventional
hydrotreating catalyst. The product stream is high in cycloalkanes and aromatics, low in alkanes
(paraffins) and very low in alkenes (olefins). The different fractions can be passed to further processing
(cracking, reforming) to output synthetic fuel of desirable quality. If passed through a process such as
platforming, most of the cycloalkanes are converted to aromatics and the recovered hydrogen recycled to
the process. The liquid product from Platforming will contain over 75% aromatics and has a Research
Octane Number (RON) of over 105.

Overall, about 97% of input carbon fed directly to the process can be converted into synthetic fuel.
However, any carbon used in generating hydrogen will be lost as carbon dioxide, so reducing the overall
carbon efficiency of the process.

There is a residue of unreactive tarry compounds mixed with ash from the coal and catalyst. To minimise
the loss of carbon in the residue stream, it is necessary to have a low-ash feed. Typically the coal should
be <10% ash by weight. The hydrogen required for the process can be also produced from coal or the
residue by steam reforming. A typical hydrogen demand is ~80 kg hydrogen per ton of dry, ash-free coal.
Generally, this process is similar to hydrogenation. The output is at three levels: heavy oil, middle oil,
gasoline. The middle oil is hydrogenated in order to get more gasoline and the heavy oil is mixed with the
coal again and the process restarts. In this way, heavy oil and middle oil fractions are also reused in this
process.
The most recent evolution of Bergius' work is the 2-stage hydroliquefaction plant at Wilsonville AL
which operated during 1981-85. Here a coal extract was prepared under heat and hydrogen pressure using
finely pulverized coal and recycle donor solvent. As the coal molecule is broken down, free radicals are
formed which are immediately stabilized by absorption of H atoms from the donor solvent. Extract then
passes to a catalytic ebullated-bed hydrocracker (H-Oil unit) fed by additional hydrogen, forming lower
molecular weight hydrocarbons and splitting off sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen originally present in the
coal. Part of the liquid product is hydrogenated donor solvent which is returned to Stage I. The balance of
liquid product is fractionated by distillation yielding various boiling range products and an ashy residue.
Ashy residue goes to a Kerr-McGee critical solvent deashing unit which yields additional liquid product
and a high-ash material containing unreacted coal and heavy residuum, which in a commercial plant
would be gasified to make the H2 needed to feed the process. Parameters can be adjusted to avoid
directly gasifying any of the coal entering the plant. Alternative versions of the plant configuration could
use L-C Fining and/or an antisolvent deashing unit. Typical species in the donor solvent are fused-ring
aromatics (tetrahydronaphthalene and up) or the analogous heterocycles.

History
Friedrich Bergius developed the process during his habilitation. A technique for the high-pressure and
high-temperature chemistry of carbon-containing substrates yielded in a patent in 1913. In this process
liquid hydrocarbons used as synthetic fuel are produced by hydrogenation of lignite (brown coal). He
developed the process well before the commonly known Fischer–Tropsch process. Karl Goldschmidt
invited him to build an industrial plant at his factory the Th. Goldschmidt AG (now known as Evonik
Industries) in 1914.[3] The production began only in 1919, after World War I ended, when the need for
fuel was already declining. The technical problems, inflation and the constant criticism of Franz Joseph
Emil Fischer, which changed to support after a personal demonstration of the process, made the progress
slow, and Bergius sold his patent to BASF, where Carl Bosch worked on it. Before World War II several
plants were built with an annual capacity of 4 million tons of synthetic fuel. These plants were
extensively used during World War II to supply Germany with fuel and lubricants.[4]

Use
Coal hydrogenation is not used commercially any more.[5]

The Bergius process was extensively used by Brabag, a cartel firm of Nazi Germany. Plants that used the
process were targeted for bombing during the Oil Campaign of World War II. At present there are no
plants operating the Bergius Process or its derivatives commercially. The largest demonstration plant was
the 200 ton per day plant at Bottrop, Germany, operated by Ruhrkohle, which ceased operation in 1993.
There are reports [6] of a Chinese company constructing a plant with a capacity of 4 000 ton per day. It
was expected to become operational in 2007,[7] but there has been no confirmation that this was achieved.

Towards the end of World War II the United States began heavily financing research into converting coal
to gasoline, including money to build a series of pilot plants. The project was enormously helped by
captured German technology.[8] One plant using the Bergius process was built in Louisiana, Missouri and
began operation about 1946. Located along the Mississippi river, this plant was producing gasoline in
commercial quantities by 1948. The Louisiana process method produced automobile gasoline at a price
slightly higher than, but comparable to, petroleum-based gasoline[9] but of a
higher quality. The facility was shut down in 1953 by the Eisenhower
administration, allegedly after intense lobbying by the oil industry.[9]

See also
Synthetic Liquid Fuels Program
Fischer–Tropsch process Ruins of coal
Karrick process elevator in a
Coal-water slurry fuel synthetic gasoline
plant from WWII (IG
Farben Industrie
References Police, Poland)

1. Bergius, Friedrich (May 21, 1932). "Chemical reactions under high

pressure" (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1931/bergius-lecture.pdf)
(PDF). Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
2. Takao Kaneko, Frank Derbyshire, Eiichiro Makino, David Gray, Masaaki Tamura and Kejian
Li "Coal Liquefaction" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 2012, Wiley-VCH,
doi:10.1002/14356007.a07_197.pub2 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2F14356007.a07_197.pub2)
3. "Degussa Geschichte - Friedrich Bergius" (http://www.degussa-history.com/geschichte/en/p
ersonalities/friedrich_bergius/). Retrieved 2009-11-10.
4. Stranges, Anthony N. (1984). "Friedrich Bergius and the Rise of the German Synthetic Fuel
Industry". Isis. 75 (4). The History of Science Society: 643–667. doi:10.1086/353647 (https://
doi.org/10.1086%2F353647). JSTOR 232411 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/232411).
S2CID 143962648 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143962648).
5. Hower, James (2016). "Coal". Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. pp. 1–63.
doi:10.1002/0471238961.0315011222151818.a01.pub3 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2F047123
8961.0315011222151818.a01.pub3). ISBN 978-0-471-48494-3.
6. [1] (http://www.engr.pitt.edu/pcc/Missing%20Papers/243.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20050319152020/http://www.engr.pitt.edu/pcc/Missing%20Papers/243.pdf) March
19, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
7. China's first coal liquefaction scheduled to ease import burden (http://english.peopledaily.co
m.cn/200501/24/eng20050124_171675.html), UPDATED: 10:28, January 24, 2005,
People's Daily Online
8. Daniel Sperling, New Transportation Fuels: A Strategic Approach to Technological Change,
pp. 43–44, University of California Press, 1990 ISBN 0520069773.
9. Energy Policy in America since 1945 (https://books.google.com/books?id=baNCePrxpSkC&
dq=Louisiana+Missouri+synfuel&pg=PA59)

External links
The Early Days of Coal Research (https://web.archive.org/web/20130222110213/http://ww
w.fe.doe.gov/aboutus/history/syntheticfuels_history.html), U.S. Department of Energy
webpage

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