Hydrocarbons From Coal

The Chemistry of Hydrocarbon Fuels is concerned with the chemical aspects of hydrofuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Topics covered include diagenesis and catagenesis, processing of natural gas and petroleum fractions, coal combustion, and chemicals that can be obtained from fuels. This book is comprised of 14 chapters and begins with a comprehensive treatment of the formation of fuels from accumulated organic matter, along with the organic geochemistry of coal, oil, and gas. The following chapters focus on the composition of hydrocarbon fuels and some of their important physical properties. Production and use of synthesis gas, alternate fuels from coal, and oxygenated fuels are considered. The remaining chapters deal with some of the chemistry of separation, refining, and use of hydrocarbon fuels. This monograph is written primarily for practicing scientists and engineers, fuel scientists, petroleum chemists, and those who are new to the field of fuel science and seek an introduction to fuel chemistry.

In this historical review the NBS work on hydrocarbons is discussed in terms of the three major classes of natural hydrocarbonaceous fuels: natural gas, petroleum, and coal. The work done on the measurement of properties of the pure components has included measurement of the values of the properties themselves and development of practical and accurate measurement procedures and instruments. In addition, combustion energies, densities, viscosities, vapor pressures, refractive indices, elemental compositions and other parameters have been determined for complex fuel mixtures and correlated to find methods of estimating properties. Extensive standard reference data tables have been compiled and a number of standard reference materials have been developed.