Production of graphene-structured products from coal using thermal molten salt process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11535518-B1
Application number	US-201916369753-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 29, 2019
Priority date	Mar 29, 2019
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

The invention provides a method for the production of graphene-structured products. The method generally comprises contacting at a conversion temperature ranging from about 850° C. to about 1100° C. in an inert atmosphere coal with a molten salt to produce a graphene-structured product. In an alternate embodiment, the method comprises contacting at a conversion temperature ranging from about 850° C. to about 1100° C. in an inert atmosphere coal with a molten salt to produce a graphene-structured product; and, separating a rare earth element from the graphene-structured product.

First claim

The embodiment of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed is defined as follows:

1. A method for the production of a graphene-structured product, the method comprising:
contacting at a conversion temperature ranging from about 850° C. to about 1100° C. coal with a molten salt to produce a graphene-structured product, wherein the contacting step further comprises combining the coal and molten salt to form a uniformly dispersed mixture of said coal and said molten salt.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the molten salt is selected from a group consisting of NaCl, KCl, CaCl 2 , LiCl, AlCl 3 , and NiCl 2 .

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the molten salt is NaCl or KCl.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the molten salt is a molten salt mixture.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the molten salt mixture comprises CaCl 2 and KCl.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the graphene-structured product is a few-layer graphene structured product.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising recovering a rare earth element from the graphene-structured product.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein recovering is by acid wash.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the contacting and heating steps generate graphene-structured product directly from coal.

10. A method for the production of graphene-structured product, the method comprising:
contacting coal and molten salt, wherein the contacting step further comprises combining the coal and molten salt to form a uniformly dispersed mixture of said coal and said molten salt;
heating the mixture through a temperature ranging from about 300° C. to about 700° C. to a conversion temperature ranging from about 850° C. to about 1100° C. to produce a graphene-structured product; and
capturing a tailing gas produced from heating at a temp ranging from about 300° C. to about 700° C.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the molten salt is selected from a group consisting of NaCl, KCl, CaCl 2 , LiCl, AlCl 3 , and NiCl 2 .

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the molten salt is NaCl or KCl.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the molten salt is a molten salt mixture.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the molten salt mixture comprises CaCl 2 and KCl.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the graphene-structured product is a thin layer graphene structured product.

16. The method of claim 10 , further comprising condensing the tailing gas to a petroleum fluid.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein the contacting and heating steps generate graphene-structured product directly from coal.

18. A method for the production of graphene-structured products, the method comprising:
contacting coal with a molten salt, wherein the contacting step further comprises combining the coal and molten salt to form a uniformly dispersed mixture of said coal and said molten salt;
heating the mixture through a temperature ranging from about 300° C. to about 700° C. to a temperature ranging from about 850° C. to about 1100° C. to produce a graphene-structured product;
capturing a tailing gas produced from heating at a temp ranging from about 300° C. to about 700° C.; and,
separating rare earth elements from the graphene-structured product.

19. The method of claim 18 , where separating is by acid washing.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the molten salt is selected from a group consisting of NaCl, KCl, CaCl 2 , LiCl, AlCl 3 , and NiCl 2 .

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the molten salt is NaCl or KCl.

22. The method of claim 18 , wherein the molten salt is a molten salt mixture.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the molten salt mixture comprises CaCl 2 and KCl.

24. The method of claim 18 , wherein the graphene-structured product is a thin layer graphene structured product.

25. The method of claim 18 , further comprising condensing the tailing gas to a petroleum fluid.

26. The method of claim 18 , wherein separating is by acid washing, the molten salt is NaCl; the graphene-structured product is a thin layer graphene-structured product; and further comprising condensing the tailing gas to a petroleum fluid.

27. The method of claim 18 wherein the contacting and heating steps generate graphene-structured product directly from coal.

Assignees

• Us Energy

Inventors

• Shi Fan
• Gray Mcmahan L
• Matranga Christopher
• Ji Tuo

Classifications

• C01B2204/26

  Mechanical properties · CPC title

• C01B2204/24

  Thermal properties · CPC title

• C01P2002/20

  Two-dimensional structures · CPC title

• C01P2004/04

  obtained by TEM, STEM, STM or AFM · CPC title

• C01P2002/88

  by thermal analysis data, e.g. TGA, DTA, DSC · CPC title