Stabilized slurry and process for preparing same

A carbonaceous compact comprising finely divided solid carbonaceous particles, wherein:

• (a) said compact has a specific surface area of from about 0.8 to about 4.0 square meters per cubic centimeter and an interstitial porosity of less than about 20 volume percent;
• (b) from about 5 to about 70 weight percent of said solid carbonaceous particles are of colloidal size, being smaller than about 3 microns;
• (c) said compact of finely divided solid carbonaceous particles has a particle size distribution substantially in accordance with the following formula:
• ##EQU8##
• wherein:
• 1. CPFT is the cumulative percent of said solid carbonaceous material finer than a certain specified particle size D, in volume percent;
• 2. k is the number of component distributions in the compact and is at least 1;
• 3. X.sub.j is the fractional amount of the component j in the compact, is less than or equal to 1.0, and the sum of all of the X.sub.j 's in the consist is 1.0;
• 4. N is the distribution modulus of fraction j and is greater than about 0.001;
• 5. D is the diameter of any particle in the compact and ranges from about 0.05 to about 1180 microns;
• 6. D.sub.s is the diameter of the smallest particle in fraction j, as measured at 1% CPFT on a plot of CPFT versus size D, is less than D.sub.L, and is greater than 0.05 microns;
• and
• 7. D.sub.L is the diameter of the size modulus in fraction j, measured by sieve size or its equivalent, and is from about 15 to about 1180 microns;
• and
• (d) at least 85 weight percent of the carbonaceous particles in the compact have a particle size less than 300 microns.