A process for selectively dealkylating aromatic compounds includes providing a coal tar stream comprising aromatic compounds and hydrotreating the coal tar stream to reduce a concentration of one or more of organic sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen in the coal tar stream, and to hydrogenate at least a portion of the aromatic compounds in the coal tar stream. The process further includes hydrocracking the hydrotreated coal tar stream to further hydrogenate the aromatic compounds and to crack at least one ring of multi-ring aromatic compounds to form single-ring aromatic compounds. The single-ring aromatic compounds present in the hydrocracked stream are then dealkylated to remove alkyl groups containing two or more carbon atoms.