Abstract: With sampling valves for gas streams or liquids, especially in coal gasification plants and with the sampling valve located close to the reactor, the functional reliability of the valve and the identity of the samples with the crude gas stream are ensured by heating and/or flushing the sampling valve. The valve has several embodiments which include features which can be used in various combinations, for example, the valve stem can include a heater, a passage for the introduction of a flushing and/or heating medium into the valve chamber. The valve housing can include a second chamber therein through which a heating medium can be circulated or by which pressure differentials on the valve chamber can be minimized.

Abstract: A process for forming charging fuel into agglomerates for the pressure gasification of coal, comprises the steps of mixing fine, granular charging fuel with a binder outside the pressure reactor, subjecting the mixture, in a pressure vessel, to the pressure prevailing in the reactor, and feeding agglomerates produced from the mixture to the fixed bed of the reactor from above. The mixture is made with a binder which hardens when heated and is kept below hardening temperature during subsequent subjection to pressure until fed to the reactor, the agglomerates being produced by hardening of the binder in the heat prevailing in the reactor above the fixed bed.

Abstract: A process for the production of fuel from coal for the pressure gasification of coal in a fixed bed reactor comprising the steps of segregating the coal into oversize and undersize fractions, mixing the undersize fraction with sulfite liquor to form an agglomerate and forming the agglomerate into pellets. The pellets are then hardened in a low temperature furnace and subsequently fed through a charging valve into the reactor, together with the oversize fraction.

Abstract: A device for passing an electric current through a wall subjected to excess pressure on its inner side, and comprising: a sleeve received in an aperture in the wall, which sleeve is integrally formed at its inner end with a collar engaging the inner surface of the wall; an electrical conductor for passing said electric current, which conductor includes a shaft passing through the sleeve, a head on the inner end of said shaft, and an inclined, e.g.