A broad-brushed assessment was made of the risks involved in using commercially available equipment in full-scale coal liquefaction and gasification plant. Flow diagrams and equipment lists were prepared for a generalized coal liquefaction process based on published data for commercial coal liquefaction and gasification plants. The equipment lists developed show that 225 different types of equipment services are required. With redundancies and active spares, 526 equipment items are identified for each of the five streams of the full-scale coal liquefaction plant. Both the performance risks and the supply risks attending the use of commercial technology and equipment were evaluated. About four percent of the equipment items are in the high risk performance category. They require significant development efforts before present equipment and technology can be used, with confidence, in a full-scale plant. Fifteen percent of the equipment items identified in the study were found to be in size coal particles and choice of a high-softening-point coal would alleviate the coking. 19 references.