Solubilization and reaction of coal and like carbonaceous feedstocks to hydrocarbons and apparatus therefor

Coal of the subanthracite type and like carbonaceous feedstocks of high molecular weight are soluble in molten inorganic salts while their hydrocarbon vapor hydrogenation products are not. The process and apparatus described utilizes these phenomena to effect an hydrogenation of e.g., bituminous coal in dissolved state in molten inorganic salt with active hydrogen derived in situ from dissociated steam and recovery of hydrocarbon vapor products sequentially evolved throughout the reaction zone by progressively stripping later evolved vapors with earlier evolved vapors passed differentially through the reaction stream thereby driving the hydrogenation reaction forward and collecting the coalesced vapors as product.