BRITISH COAL

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 149, 27 June 1933, Page 7

BRITISH COAL

A BETTER OUTLOOK

Three recent dev6lopnionts in Britain are regarded ( as indicating a moro prosperous period ahead for the coal industry, says,the. "Christian Science Monitor. " ■ I Krst, following on the placing of contracts for oil and petrol from coal by the Navy and Air Ministry, Government officials are considering an extension of these supplies. Second, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in his Budget speech a tax of a penny a gallon on imported heavy hydro-carbon oils. Third, the hydrogenation process for obtaining motor fuel from coal is said to bo noaring the stago of commercial production, The first and third of these (levelopmphts nre those likely' to be of the greatest benefit to tho British coal industry. The sccoud will help, it is stated. ■ . It lins taken nearly thirty years for a low-tomperaturo process for tho carbonisation of coal to reach the stago of dpmmereial production. At present only some 330,000 tons of coal are being carbonised, which ' produces about 230,000 tons of smokeless fuel, for which the demand exceeds tho supply; nearly 6,000,000 gallons of oil, and some 800,000 gallons of motor fuel. Cities liko London and Manchester look to smokeless fuel to free them from tho black pall which descends on them periodically. ■ By the hydrogenation process coal is entirely broken down by being subjected while at a white heat to hydrogen at high pressure. There are no by-products, such as smokeless fuel, heavy oil, sulphate of nmmonia, which ore obtainable by the low-temperature process, but the yield of petrol is greater. The two systems together, it is said, would mean the rehabilitation of the coal industry, with plants established at pitheads from which distribution Of their products could be made direct.