Preparation and Catalytic Performance of Fe-Cr-Si-Pillared Montmorillonite as Coal Liquefaction Catalyst

Abstract

A set of pillared montmorillonite (PILM) catalysts were prepared by exchanging Na+ with iron pillars, chromium pillars, complexes pillars of iron and chromium with different proportion, as well as complexes pillar of silica sol and iron and chromium, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), thermogravimetry (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) were used to characterize the catalysts. The XRD results reveal that Fe-Cr complexes pillared montmorillonites (Fe/Cr-PILM) have the basal spacing of about 2.04 nm after calcination at 300 °C for 2 h, while sole metal PILM have that of about 1.0 nm; in particular, the basal spacing of silica sol complexes pillared montmorillonite (Fe-Cr-Si-PILM) are expanded up to 4.33 nm. The TG-DTA results show that both Fe-Cr-PILM and Fe-Cr-Si-PILM have high thermal stability up to 640 °C. Catalytic activity of Fe/Cr-Si-PILM in Longkou lignite (LL) and ShengLi coal residue (SCR) liquefaction was studied, which showed that PILM had a good catalytic performance in coal conversion field.