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"But that takes energy as well. Any kind of separation process will, and that means losses, more or less. I'm not saying its impractical and may very well end up being a good way to beef up our domestic supply of hydrocarbon products and/or viable substitutes, but its still going to take a reliable and robust supply of primary energy."

All the "primary energy" necessary to drive the process comes from the energy contained in the coal itself.

For vehicular usage, I actually prefer methanol, which is far more flexible than hydrogen (i.e. it can be used in fuel cells AND be burned in existing internal-combustion engines). The storage problems are also much reduced. Methanol can also be produced from that carbon-monoxide/hydrogen gas that is coal syngas.

All the "primary energy" necessary to drive the process comes from the energy contained in the coal itself.

So you're not using an external source (primary energy) to drive the gasification process? Its just combusting the coal and capturing the products of that? If so, could one retrofit existing coal burners and use them to produce these products? Or is a slower process?

All the "primary energy" necessary to drive the process comes from the energy contained in the coal itself.

Yep, that's called "energy conversion inefficiencies".