Manufacture of hydrocarbon oils by hydrocracking of coal

Claim 1

A process for the continuous manufacture of hydrocarbon oil from coal by hydrocracking under pressure, by slurrying ground coal, with or without a catalyst, in an oil mixture which is produced as defined below, heating the slurry together with hydrogen under a pressure of from 100 to 400 bars to from 380° to 440° C., and passing it through one or more reaction chambers kept at from 420° to 490° C., wherein the ground coal is slurried in a virtually asphalt-free mixture of middle oil and heavy oil produced as defined below in a weight ratio of oil mixture: coal of from 1:1 to 3:1, and the reaction products from the one or final reaction chamber are passed into a hot separator kept somewhat below the reaction temperature, the gas and vapor which leaves the top of the separator is divided into two parts having the same composition and a first part is passed through one or more reaction chambers provided with a fixed hydrogenation catalyst, and, after cooling to from 40° to 80° C., is passed into a stripper for separating hydrogen (recycle gas) and liquid hydrogenation product, the other part of said gas and vapor from the hot separator is cooled directly and separated, in a stripper, into recycle gas and liquid product, the latter is freed from gasoline and used as one portion of the slurry oil for the coal as specified above, a bottoms product (sludge) from the first hot separator is separated into a distillate oil to serve as the other portion of the slurry oil for pasting the coal and into a residue, and the latter is converted, in a gasifier under a pressure of from 30 to 100 bars, to give synthesis gas.