Coal gasification effluent treatment

Claim 1

In a process for the gasification of coal in a coal gasification zone to produce a solid char residue and a coal gasification effluent containing tar and oils, the improvements comprising: separately withdrawing said char and said coal gasification effluent from said coal gasification zone; suspending said withdrawn char in said withdrawn coal gasification effluent; passing said char suspended in said gasification effluent into a fluidized char bed maintained in a char cooling zone; cooling and maintaining char in said bed at a temperature of from 220° F. to 600° F. by indirect heat transfer, whereby said coal gasification effluent, containing tar and oils, passing through said cooled char bed is cooled and tar and oils are separated therefrom by absorbing the tar and oils on said char bed; and removing cooled char from the coal gasification process without recycle of any cooled char to the coal gasification zone by withdrawing cooled char from said char bed, whereby char produced in the coal gasification is cooled prior to removal thereof.