FRANCE SEEKS NEW MOTOR FUEL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 65, 3 April 1937, Page 11

FRANCE SEEKS NEW MOTOR FUEL

Experiments Carried Out ■9 x-

glNCE FRANCE PRODUCES barely • one-sixth of the fuel needed for her mechanised army, the question arlses of finding a substitute "national77 fuel of quality and yield, writes Bene Hombourger. As a contribution • to the solution of the problem these • following facts are presented coneerning tbe use of city or illuminatiug gas for tbe purpose. Practical and conclu■Ive experiments have been carried ont at Trionville, on the banbs of tbe Mo^selle Biver, where the Maginot line erects in insupe.rable wall of cemont and steeL Tbe Lower-Moselle Transportatioii Company bas actually supplied its vebicles with illuminating gas-Gas-operated vehicles in tbe form of trams have been in existence gince 1893, but it was not until 1917 tbat England and- France were compelled to return to this medium due to.a lack. of liquid fuel. And in 1918 . tbe Paris Gas Company furnisbed two cars with illuminating gas. -Tbey made tests ' on a touiing car and . on a truck showing tbat one litre of gatsoline . could be replaeed by 1.7. cubic metres' of gas. Now Prance .wants, above all, .to rid herself of economic depeudence on foreign countries * and tbe . use of ligbtin g gas as a national. fuel can but promote t^is effort effecUvely. Theref ore, » this gas, produced "by more than, 800 factories and coke-making centree wbicb are located tbrougbout tbe whole country at average distances of 25 miles, is destined tb become France's national fuoL Nor is ligbting gas tbe only like fuel available. Methane, water gas and benzine would give almost identieal results. Further, tbe manufacture 'of ligbting gas iteelf involves tbe nse of coal. Tbis coal, buxned in our fur- . naces, gives off energy wbicb in general is badly utilised, whereas, wben it is distilied, it supplies; coke wbicb is an excellent substitute for coal; ligbting gas; benzol for motors and the tbemical industry; tar and a quantity of byproducts

Now it is a secret to no one to-day tbat if, in an automobile motor, the carburretor is replaced with a set of devices into which a system of pipes carrying calibrated gas and air empties, the motor will function normally. Not only will it run more smoothly when tbis fuel is used in preference tq others, but also if the rate of condennjation in the motor is increased slightly, its yield will be improved \in considerable proportions. It only remains, tben, to arrange for tbe storage of tbe gas in tbe cars. It bas been condensed in bottles at 200kilogram pressure. And witb tbis in mmd, tbe Lower-Moselle. Transportation Company bas b'uilt a condensing station in wbich there axe three vast rooms: in tbe first tbere is a condenscr and a, moving table, tbe hourly eapaciety of tbe condenser being 70 cubic meter3 of compressed gas; the second room is reserved for all the electric equipment, tbat is, for tbe motor, the apparatus for making it go and a safety device for stopping the machine automatic'ally if an untoward incident occurs;' finally, tbe tbird Toom, called tbe ' ' storage cell room," contains three large circular containers placed on beton bases and in which, when not in use, the gas is stored at a pressure of 250 kilograms. In this way cars being loaded.at 250 kilograms, they can empty tbe gas in the storage colls into the bottles till tbe pressure balance is reacbed The gas is stored at 200 kilograms in eight botlles identical to those used for oxygen and may be placed either on the side of the engine body or on the roof. By a steel piping system, the gas is conducted to an oxpansion device, wbicb lowers the gas (to tbe pressure wbicb tbe motor an usec. Tbe gas thus reduced reacbes tbe carburetor as a "mixed77 gas for admission into tbe cylinder. Here, tben, is tbe base for a new industry wbich may do great service in the cause of the automobile in France.