Exxon donor solvent process

This article describes Exxon's coal liquefaction research and the currently envisioned commercial EDS Process. Major sections are devoted to the donor solvent, the currently operating 1-ton/day pilot plant, and the nature of our liquid products. Finally, there is a description of the next step, a 250-ton/day pilot plant, which will be required to complete the development. We have concluded that a 250-ton/day, large pilot plant will be required to provide the data needed for scaleup of the EDS process to a commercial unit; e.g., 50,000 bbl./day. Considerable engineering effort has been devoted to planning the basis, and setting the size for this pilot plant. The large pilot plant was designed to demonstrate at minimum cost and on a minimum scale those parts of the process and those pieces of mechanical equipment that have not been operated successfully on a commercial scale in other applications under substantially identical, or more severe, conditions. The major factors affecting the design of the large pilot plant are detailed.