Not too long ago I wondered why coal wasn't being molecularly broken down into the same fractions as crude oil. Well, it is (can be). The issue is high CO2 emissions that evolve during the process(es). Capturing and stabilizing the CO2 makes the process too expensive, and with the amazing abundance of natural gas in the US (that can be polymerized into any length carbon molecule you'd like) makes coal a fossil in many more ways than one.
I was captivated by the movie "The Formula" with George Scott and Marlon Brando, where Brando, as a Big Oil Fat Cat, tells Scott that during WW II the Germans didn't have crude oil, but they had plenty of coal...For years I wondered whey Big Oil didn't capitalize on this, turns out that the Germans did not have a catalyst that could break coal molecules into anything useable. The ME 262s ran on a slurry mixture of coal.
I did hear a rumor that the South Africans are actually converting coal regardless of the CO2 emissions, ' can't say for sure.