Structure and Reactivity of Coal

This book provides an insight into the development and usage of coal in chemical engineering. The reactivity of coal in processes such as pyrolysis, gasification, liquefaction, combustion, swelling are related to the structural properties of the coal used in the process. The book comprehensively answers three crucial fundamental issues for optimization of coal chemical conversions based on presentation of experiment results and theoretical analysis: what is the structure of coal? How does the underlying structure determine the reactivity of different types of coal? How does the structure of coal evolve during coal conversion? This book will likely be of interest to both individual readers and institutions associated with the teaching and research of chemical engineering, and energy conversion technologies. It is aimed at upper level undergraduate students. The text should be accessible to readers with basic knowledge of chemistry, typical of a first year undergraduate general science student. More advanced students with more in-depth knowledge of the chemistry of coal will also find the content of the book to be easily understandable. Advanced level students, practicing engineers and university level teachers may also find this text to be useful resource for reference.§§Professor Ke-Chang Xie , is a Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering of America, and specialist in coal chemical engineering.§