THE NEW ORDER

Hokitika Guardian, 28 March 1925, Page 4

THE NEW ORDER

ARTIFICIAL PETROL. (Hy Dr. Edwin IS. Slosson in Sydney “ Herald.”) One of the most pressing problems of the present time is: What are we going to do when the oil runs outP If that question is not answered within the

next 10 or 20 years, the pressure oi parking space will automatically be re lieved through the growing .scarcity o! automobiles, aviation will remain i

rarity, the small shop will tend to ex tinctioii through loss of its bandy en

Already tho question lias became acute in countries less oily than ours, In England, Germany, and France Chemists are hard at work trying U invent ways of making something t< match the natural petroleum that i still being so recklessly wasted v.itl

us. The three countries are pursuing different ways towards the solution ol their common problem, and all have recently reported some measure of success in getting gasoline from coal. The British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is experimenting in low temperature carbonisation, ami lias worked out a process that gives a gaseous fuel for local use, a liquid fuel, suitable for motors, and a solid smokeless fuel, which they call “ coalite,” for household and indus-

trial purposes. In Germany the Bergiiis process of treating powered coal with hydrogen under high temperature and pressure is said to be capable of converting lowgrade lignite into a synthetic petroleum equal to the natural. In France a Roumanian chemist, Georges Olivier, in collaboration with a French mining engineer, Charles An-

dry-Bourgeois, lias invented a process claimed to be callable of ((inverting coal, wood, or any kind of carbonaceous material into gasoline ol higher beating value Ilian that obtained from petroleum, ’iiiis is accomplished by the aid of certain catalysts, which have the power of elfeetiug the desired iimir I.illation of carbon with hydrogen at high temperatures. Exactly wliat these catalysts consist of is not revealed in the account of the process given in the

October issue of " La Science et La Vie,” but they are stated to be made i,f certain metallic powders spread upon ■infusorial earth, pumice, clay, charcoal, and other porous bases. The first stage of tlie process is

similar to the laniilar method of making coke and illuminating gas. The coal or lignite is mixed with Irom ■> t> 25 per cent, of lime, soda, or alumina,

and heated in tight retorts. The distillate of tar, ammonia, and light oils is condensed and utilised, fine coke remaining in the retort is converted into water-gas by the well-known me tliod of passing steam over it while red-hot. Water gas is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, both excellent combustibles, and both employed in later parts of the process. '1 ho gaseous output of the coke oven consists of free hydrogen, methane, and more complex compounds of livdrogen and carbon. It is essential lor the next step that there should lie all excess of hydrogen. If the mixed gas contains less than to or 20 per cent, ot hydrogen by weight more must be added. 'This additional hydrogen may be obtained from the water-gas, or, if necessary, by decomposing water by the electric current.

Tbe second stage of the process consists in passing these gases through an electrical furnace heated to 3000 degrees centigrade. I his transforms the methane into acetylene, and changes the other hydrocarbons into forms more active and ready tor combination. The gaseous mixture so obtained is next conducted under pressure through tubes containing tho catalysing agents. The temperature at the beginning ot tliis, the third, stage of the process is about 150 degrees centigrade at first, but rises to 400 degrees at the end. Contact of the gases witli these finely divided metals somehow causes the smaller divided molecules to hoolc up together and form larger molecules, and the colourless gas that entered the tube comes out as coloured oil. which, like the distillate of natural petroleum, looks red by transmitted light and green by reflected light. It contains about 75 per cent, of very light gasoline.

In the fourth and final stage this coloured oil is again passed over metallic cntalysers, with an excess of hydrogen, at a temperature of ISO degrees. The finished product is a light limpid colourless liquid, having a very agreeable odour. It consists largely of what the chemist calls the ‘'hydrogenated compounds of the benzine series, such as cyclohexane. In composition it consists of about 80 per cent, ol carbon, 13.05 per cent, of hydrogen, with very little oxygen and less sul-

phur. The process seems pretty complicated. but according to figures of AT. Oli- | vier. gasoline can be manufactured from the French lignites at a cost of 12 cents a gallon, which is less than a third the present price of gasoline in France. The initial plant constructed at Asnieres is expected to turn out a thousand tons a clay. Twenty-five per cent, of the carbon in the original coal conies out in the form of gasoline. The rest is mostly employed in heating the gas and apnaratus and imining the engines.