ARTIFICIAL PETROL.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18232, 17 November 1924, Page 3

ARTIFICIAL PETROL.

A FRENCH INVENTION. French motorists may now look-for-ward to the pleasant prospect, of unlimited supplies of petrol at ,a -price of-, about 3 francs (9d) .a gallon. This revelation, which will'have a most important effect not only on. the motor industry,, but on the economic position of France, was made at the exhibition of synthetic motor fuels held at Buc, when the public were able to see motors running on petrol which had been obtained from lignite coke and water. MM. Andry-Bourgepis and Oliver have recently discovered that they can make petrol from almost any substance'containing carbon. The sample with which they have given a conclusive demonstration was made from water and lignite coke—a residue which had previously hardly any ! commercial value. Peat coal dust, charcoal dust, and sawdust, arid a number of other low-grade combustibles may be used. The new process is based on the water-gas method. Carbon containing the material mixed with water is first converted intu a. mixture of carbon dioxide and. hydrogen, commonly known as water-gas, which, in turn, is changed to methane, or.marsh gras. This is passed through an apparatus in which, under action of. high frequency it becomes condensed into acetylene. This accty-l-iur in turn, is passed."into which the inventors call "catalyseurs," from which it emerges eventually . in the-form of a thick oil, which, on being distilled, yields pure petrol, burning oil, and lubricating" oil. Of these three products, petrol is the most abundant, forming 75 per cent, of th-3 whole. The various chemical processes referred to have been known for a long time, but the secret of the new invention lies in the " catalyseurs."