Method for production of acetylene

In a process for the production of acetylene by direct transformation of brown or mineral coal in a gas containing hydrogen comprising the steps of:

• loading the gas containing hydrogen with such an amount of coal that the ratio of electric power to coal stream is from about 4,000 to 40,000 kJ/kg coal, heating the gas containing hydrogen and coal by an electric arc with an energy of from about 5 to 20KJ/l, and quenching the resulting product gas with cold liquid hydrocarbons, cold gas or water, the improvement comprising grinding the coal to less than 0.5 mm diameter, said coal having a content of volatile components of from about 25 to 44 percent and a content of organic oxygen of under 9 percent, separating the coal into from about 2 to 4 different coal grain size fractions, supplying each of these coal grain size fractions to a separate electric arc reactor, quenching the product gas after a dwell time in the hot gas, which dwell time is about inversely proportional to the third root of the specific outer surface of the individual coal fraction.