Abstract: The present invention is directed to an improvement in the coal gasification process that effectively eliminates substantially all of the environmental pollutants contained in the producer gas. The raw producer gas is passed through a two-stage water scrubbing arrangement with the tars being condensed essentially water-free in the first stage and lower boiling condensables, including pollutant laden water, being removed in the second stage. The pollutant-laden water is introduced into an evaporator in which about 95 percent of the water is vaporized and introduced as steam into the gas producer. The condensed tars are combusted and the resulting products of combustion are admixed with the pollutant-containing water residue from the evaporator and introduced into the gas producer.