Recovery of hard acids and soft bases from decomposed coal

摘要

An improved process for recovering hard acids and soft bases used to decompose coal in which finely divided coal particles are contacted with a hard acid in the presence of a soft base at temperatures of from 0. degree. to 100° C., said hard acid being characterized by a heat of reaction with dimethylsulfide of from 10 kcal/mol to 30 kcal/mol and said soft base being characterized by a heat of reaction with boron trifluoride of from 10 kcal/mol to 17 kcal/mol, followed by extracting the decomposed coal to remove said hard acid and soft base wherein the improvement comprises performing said extraction at a temperature of about 0° to about 50° C. using dimethylsulfide as the extraction solvent, and wherein following said dimethylcarbonate extraction, said decomposed coal is extracted with water at a temperature of from about 60° to 275° C.