Continuous preparation of hydrocarbon oils from coal by hydrogenation under pressure in two stages

Claim 1

In a process for the continuous preparation of hydrocarbon oils from coal by cracking hydrogenation under pressure in two stages, namely a first stage of pasting milled coal, together with finely divided catalysts, with an oil mixture to form a coal/oil slurry mixture, heating the slurry to 380° -440° C. under a hydrogen pressure of from 200 to 700 bar, passing the mixture through one or more reaction chambers in which it is hydrogenated (this constituting a slurry-phase hydrogenation) and separating the gaseous and liquid reaction products from the solid products in hot separators, and a second stage of passing the gaseous and liquid products through one or more reaction chambers, provided with fixed hydrogenation catalysts, and there subjecting them, in the gas phase, to a further hydrogenation, the heat of the end products being transferred to the starting materials by heat exchange, the improvement which comprises: transferring the heat of the end products indirectly and separately to the coal/oil mixture and the hydrogen in not less then three stages, and directly heating the coal/oil mixture having a temperature in the range from 290 to 340° C. by adding to this portion of the coal/oil mixture a part of the hot liquid/solid hydrogenation residue and the whole of the condensates, obtained at 390°-410° C., of the gaseous/vaporous hydrogenation products.