A favorable conclusion has been reached regarding the commercial attractiveness of low-temperature coal pyrolysis. Evidence to support this conclusion has been derived from researching prior work and new screening experiments. These revealed that sufficient yields of oils, considerably higher in quality than usually attributed to coal liquids, is obtainable if laboratory results can be reproduced in a scaled-up process. Since the process is constrained by the requirement that the char have a market, it is felt that pyrolysis alone will not suffice as the nation's synthetic fuel technology.