Recovery of hard acids and soft bases from decomposed coal

A process for the hydroprocessing of coal to produce light hydrocarbon oils which comprises:

• decomposing coal by contacting finely divided coal particles with a hard acid in the presence of a soft base at temperatures of from 0.degree. to 100.degree. 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;
• extracting the decomposed coal with dimethylcarbonate (DMC) at a temperature of about 50.degree. C. to about 100.degree. C.;
• extracting said DMC extracted coal with water at a temperature of about 60.degree. C. to about 275.degree. C.;
• forming a mixture of said decomposed coal and catalyst precursor containing a dihydrocarbyl substituted dithiocarbamate of a metal selected from any one of groups IV-B, V-A, VII-A and VIII-A or mixtures thereof;
• hydroprocessing the mixture at temperatures of from 250.degree. C. to 550.degree. C. and a hydrogen partial pressure of 2100 kPa to 35000 kPa;
• and
• recovering hydrocarbon oil.