PETROL FROM COAL

Hokitika Guardian, 4 November 1929, Page 2

PETROL FROM COAL

WHAT GERMANY DOES. After a sojourn in Germany extending over two years, Mi" A. E. 3 roue, of Sydney, lias returned to Austral.a firmly convinced that if methods similar to those employed by Germany in the extraction of oil Irom coal and the subsequent production jf petroleum were adopted in the Dominions they would no longer have to depend upon other countries for their petrol supplies, hut would be able to produce sufficient spirit to meet their requirements. Germany, having practically no oil fields, was forced .either to rely upon importations or seek a substitute for natural, petroleum. She chose the latter course. 'Her scientists bus hid themselves, and as a result of intense research the problem, so far as she was concerned, was solved. “Our 'black coal,” Mr Broue declared, “is one of the richest in the world in volatiles, some of it reaching 4S per cent. Moreover, wo lave plenty of shales, so-called tor ban it os, which have yielded as high as 178 gallons a ton. the products from that shale oil, especially the petrol, are deemed to equal anything jet produced.’* In Victoria there were vast deposits of lignite, and that material had been dealt with successfully in Germany for the production of large quantities of petrol by a process of hydrogenation in the works of J. G. Farbenindustrie (commonly known as the Dye Trust); at Lcuna, near Leipzig. In the near future the quantity treated there was expected to roach 25,000 tons a day. There the material was finely ground, then injected by pumps under great pressure, a.ml raised to great heat. It was claimed that up to 73 per cent, of the bulk was converted into petrol. None of the plant he had seen in Germany was capable of treating the rich coking materials of New South Vales, for Germany possessed no like deposits. A plant must be devised to bring the material to the best stale for. heat-in?, have the beat under per feet control, provide continuous operation, and hot exceed the essential heat of liquification. Repeatedly, in Germany, surmise had been expressed that Australia did not make better use of her rich deposits. German scientists and economists had often expressed the wish that the deposits were within the borders of Germany. The foregoing should possess some interest for New Zealand. The difficulty associated with the liquidation of Australia’s rich coking materials, to which Mr Broue refers, would exist, it' is reasonable to assume, to a much reduced extent in the case of New Zealand coal deposits. Particularly should this he the case, with New . Zealand lignites, the deposits t>f which are ' almost inexhaustible,- in the southern part of this Island.