PETROL FROM COAL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 164, 29 July 1937, Page 5

PETROL FROM COAL

Problem to be Faced SYDNEY, June 2. Profltable production of motor spirit from coal, by low-temperature carbonisation, dependg on the presence of a great market for by-pro-ducta, chiefly of coke for domestic fires and gas for industrial uses, overseas authorities declare. Australia requires between 200 and 300 million gallons oi petrol annually for motor vehicles, aeroplanes, and water craft. According tp one Australian estimate, production of even 200,000,000 gallons of oil (ehiefiy mofor spirit) from coal by carbonisation would mean a vast output of by-products, said a leading engineer, The quantitiea would b© about 3,330,000 tops oi coke, or smokeless fuel. and about 50. 000 million cubic feet of gas. The amount of CQal used would approach 5,000,000 tons. Whether the motor spirit could be sold at a fcommercial price would depend largely qpon disposal pf thesp enormoup quantities of gas apd coke at satigfactory prices, the engineer added, It was difiicult to visualise a market here for such an output. In Britain, low-temperature carbonisation was practicable. because during the long winter the requirements of smokeless fuel for domestic heating were enormous: while • the great industrial centres could absorb the gas produged. Jn Australia the chief problem of lowTtemperature coal carbonisation would npt be the actual processing, but the absorptiqn of huge quantities of coke and gas at pricep making nossible a modergt* priA* tep> tho motor spirit. ■ '