Partial oxidation with recycle of recovered carbon

In a process for the gasification of a finely divided solid fuel entrained in a fluid medium which comprises subjecting a finely divided solid fuel ground so that at least 95% passes through a 14 mesh sieve to partial oxidation to produce a gas comprising carbon monoxide and hydrogen and containing carbon and ash bearing entrained particles and recycling said entrained particles to the partial oxidation step wherein the improvement comprises removing the entrained particles in a liquid quench medium, settling the carbon rich portion of said particles in said liquid medium, rejecting particles larger than about 0.84 mm from the settled particles and comminuting the remaining particles, subjecting the comminuted particles to froth flotation and recycling only the carbon rich float fraction to the partial oxidation step.