Bio-liquefaction of Fushun lignite: characterization of newly isolated lignite liquefying fungus and liquefaction products

Bio-liquefaction of coal is a potential technology of converting solid coal to liquid fuel/chemicals at ambient condition. Our previous research has successfully isolated one fungus called AH from Chinese mine environment to liquefy Chinese lignite. To help understand bio-liquefaction of Chinese lignite, this paper focused on characterization of fungus AH and bio-liquefaction products. Results showed that during bio-liquefaction of Chinese lignite, Fungus AH changed its growth rate and pH levels of culture media, compared with its normal growth. UV-VIS analysis showed that main components of bio-liquefied lignite (black liquid) were phenol derivatives, ketones and aldehydes. For IR analysis, bio-liquefaction products and pretreated lignite had similar IR spectra. For GC-MS analysis, 16 high-concentration compounds in black liquid were identified, of which, 11 belonged to aromatic acids or ethers. The average aromatic ring number of these 16 compounds was 0.875 less than 1.56 of pretreated lignite.