Energy and Chemicals Production from Coal-based Technologies: A Review

Coal, a solid fossil fuel, consists of organic and inorganic matter. Its complex structure contains fused aromatic moieties, constituting a three-dimensional macromolecular coal structure network. More efficient utilisation technologies are required to ensure coal becomes a considerably cleaner source of energy in the future. Due to the increase in energy, liquid fuels, and combustible gas demands, coal utilisation is necessary for some developing countries such as Pakistan, Turkey, and India. Furthermore, coal is globally being used to produce liquid fuels and combustible gases. The benefits and drawbacks of various Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalysts are discussed. For clean coal carbonisation, blends of coal and biomass, which are the current trends in decarbonising the coal industries, should be adopted and the chemistry of coal carbonisation should be investigated further, especially the phenomenon that occurs at the plastic layer (300-550 degrees C). In addition, the clean co-gasification technology presented in this work could be adopted and successfully implemented through government and industry initiatives to study and test coal/biomass for co-gasification and advanced modelling and simulation of the co-gasification plant.