OIL FROM COAL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 57, 23 March 1937, Page 6

OIL FROM COAL

-Own Correspondent.)

German Process Likely For Wales PLANS IN HAND

(By Air Mail-

LONDON, Feb. 25. The Sunday Express understands that the Government have taken in hand plants for creating a vast "oil-from-eoal" plant in South Wales. Wax, spirit, and lubricating oil would be produced by the plant, which could produce several millions of tons of oil yearly. The scheme is estimated to oost several million pounds, but Government experts believe that, by putting coal back on the economic map, it will lead to the recovery of distressed areas not only in Wales but throughout the country. Special Interest attaches to the plan in view of Herr Hitler's declaration that under the Four-Year Plan some 30,000,000. tons of coal are to be consumed annually in oil-producing plants in Germany. The plant which the Government intend to ereet in South Wales will be comparable in output with that owned by Imperial Chemical Industries at Billingham. Last year this plant consumed 425,000 tons of coal and produced about 34,000,000 gallons of motor spirit. In South Wales, however, a process entirely new to thia . country will be used if negotiations now going on are completed. This is the Piseher-Tropsch process, a German invention now being operated in the Ruhr. The Billingham plant employs the Bergius process of hydrogenation. This involves the use of large quantities of special steel to resist the extremely high pressures involved. The present shortags of steel is one of the reasons for the choice of the Fiseher process, for this plant operates at atmospheric pressure. Coke is made into water gas, which passes over a catalyst and is converted wholly into oil. The oil then passes to a ' ' cracking ' ' plant. This separates it into motor spirit, lubricating oil, and wax. I understand that secret tests carried out by Government experts have shown that the Fiseher process is extremely suitable for use with Welsh coal. The object behind the erection of the new plant is two-f-old. It aims at providing an additional outlet for Welsh coal and also at helping to reduce dependence on imported supplies of oil. In this respect Britain is lagging far behind Germany. Last year Germany produced 50 per cent. of her total oil consumption from domestic coal.