f environment the shear force required to break the cylinder of frozen coal loose from the tubing wall was determined on a baldwin hydraulic press the shear force was measured to be 55 and 54 pounds for the two samples comparatively two steel pipes left untreated and filled with moist coal as above required shear forces of 580 and 670 pounds to break the coal loose from the wall five hundred 500 ml of the liquid composition of example 1 was thickened by mixing therewith 4 5 grams of a hydroxyethyl cellulose thickening agenthaving a molecular weight of 100 000 instead of the polyacrylamide polymer a coal sample as described in example 1 was frozen in rectangular open containers the walls of which had previously been coated with the thickened composition the effort required to extract the frozen coal fromthese containers was then determined by inverting the container in this example the frozen coal sample fell out of the container without the application of any outside force in contrast a frozen core in a similar container not having any release agent required a tap with a hammer to remove the frozen coal in this example a 3 8 inch steel plate and 2 inch inside diameter by threeinch long pieces of.