761a.    EASTMAN, D.  Preliminary Report on Coal Gasification.  Am. Inst. Min. and Met. Eng., 173d Meeting, February 1952.

       According to the Texas Co., any type of coal can no be processed into synthesis gas under high pressure.  A slurry of finely ground, raw coal containing 40-60% coal and 60-40% H₂O is pumped through a heater, where the coal suspension is raised to several hundred pounds pressure and temperatures exceeding 1,000° F., into the reaction chamber where it meets a stream of pure O₂.  The ash which has become molten is drawn off at the bottom of the reaction chamber into a reservoir of cold H₂O where it disintegrates and is removed as a finely divided solid suspended in H₂O.  The product gas passes through a waste-heat boiler.  The reactor, a pressure shell fitted with an internal coil, has H₂O circulating through it.  The generator is normally operated at a temperature above the fusion point of the ash.  If the fusion temperature is higher than the desired reaction temperature, a fluxing agent may be added to the coal-H₂O feed to help melt the ash.  Gasification has been as high as 95%.  O₂ consumption rates are expected to be 15,000-20,000 ft.³ per ton of dry coal with 80-90% of the heating value of the coal appearing as H₂ and CO in the synthesis gas.