Characteristics and geological significance of germanium in Taiyuan coal formation of Huainan Coalfield,Anhui,China

HN-1#is the first fully working coring well of the Taiyuan Formation(Ty)in the Huinan Coalfield and exploration studies are currently underway on the associated resources of the coal-bearing strata.The HN-1#well is located in the Fufeng thrust nappe structural belt in the south of the Huainan Coalfield.Three coal samples from the Ty were collected from HN-1#and inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry and inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry were used to determine the Ge content of each sample.Based on proximate and ultimate analyses,microscopy data,and analyses of the ash products,some important findings were made.The Ty coal samples had a relatively high total sulfur(Sud)content(4.24%),thus the coal was considered to be a lower ranked coal(high volatility bituminous coal),which also had a low coal ash composition index(k,1.87).Collodetrinite was the main submaceral of the Ty coal.Small amounts of pyrite particles were found in the coal seams of the Ty,while the contents of pyrite and algae in the top and bottom sections of the coal seam were relatively high,which meant that the swampy peat conditions which existed during the formation of the coal seams were affected by seawater;also the degree of mineralization of the coal seam was relatively high,which is consistent with reducing conditions in a coastal environment setting.Atomic force microscopy(AFM)experiments showed that the modes of occurrence of Ge in the Ty coal were mainly those for organic-bound and adsorbed Ge species.The organic carbon isotope values for the Ty coal ranged from-24.1‰to-23.8‰,with an average value of-24.0‰,which is equivalent to the value for terrestrial plants(average value-24.0‰).The Ge content of the Ty coal was 13.57 mg/kg.The Ge content was negatively correlated with volatile matter and the ash yield.

Contribution of algae and bacteria during humic coal formation in the Taiyuan Formation in the eastern part of North China

The significant differences in properties of humic coal from the Carboniferous TaiyuanFormation and from the Permian Shanxi Formation in North China have acquired a spe-cial interest in recent years. The abnormalities of humic coal from the Taiyuan

New methyl formate synthesis method:Coal to methyl formate

Methyl formate is one of the most important intermediates in C1 chemistry, which has been employed in a wide range of industrial applications. Current synthesis methods for methyl formate mainly include esterification of methanol and formic acid, liquid-phase methanol carbonylation, oxidative dehydrogenation of methanol, one-step syngas synthesis, and carbon dioxide hydrogenation and condensation with methanol, Liquid-phase methanol carbonylation is currently a main commercially viable process devel- oped by BASF Corp, for the industrial production of methyl formate. Recently, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new synthesis method to con- vert coal to methyl formate （denoted as CTMF）, Different from the liquid-phase methanol carbonylation using homogeneous catalysts, CTMF method features with vapor-phase methanol carbonylation using het- erogeneous nanocatalysts, which can effectively utilize the coal-based syngas and produce value-added fine chemicals （i.e., methyl formate）. The newly developed method not only provides a new methyl for- mate synthesis technology but also contributes to the development of strategies for synthesizing valuable chemicals from coal. In this review, we firstly provide introduction on the development of existing methyl formate synthesis methods and then highlight the research progress of CTMF method. Finally, a perspec- tive on the future of CTMF is given,