Process for the hydrogenation of coal

Abstract

In a process for hydrogenation of coal, comprising a sequence of reaction steps, connected in series, in which finely divided coal is mixed with oil and pumped to pressure, subsequently is heated to the hydrogenation starting temperature and then is subjected to catalytically activated hydrogenation, in the presence of hydrogen, wherein at least part of the heat required for heating is transferred to the coal by direct heat exchange with the hot product vapors; thereafter extracting a portion of the liquid intermediate product present in the reaction step downstream of the last reaction stage, and feeding, at least part of such product to the coal slurry which has been pumped to pressure. Preferably, the first reaction step is a preliminary reactor and the liquid intermediate product is fed to the coal slurry together with the hot product vapors. In an intermediate separator downstream from the mixing zone, the uncondensed portion of the product vapors, remaining after the heat exchange of the slurry with the gases and vapors withdrawn from the heated coal slurry, is separated from the slurry and passed to further hydrogenating purification.