PRODUCER GAS

Southland Times, Issue 24241, 26 September 1940, Page 11

PRODUCER GAS

To The Editor Sir,—Motor tractor users who are thinking of changing over to producer gas would do well to tind out a few facts before making the change, I am informed by an authority on the subject that an engine with a 6 to 1 compression ratio could be expected to lose 40 per cent, of power. A loss of so much power, or even of half of it, would make the average tractor useless for the task for which it was bought. Further, these producer plants add weight and cost a tidy sum to fit. To make a long story short, they make a tractor unfit for its job. Nevertheless, the Government is advocating the change-over to save fuel. I think Mr Nash’s explanation of the petrol restrictions here, as compared with those in force in Australia and the United Kingdom, falls completely flat and explains nothing. Perhaps Mr Denham would please explain.—Yours, etc.,

PRODUCE MORE WITH LESS FUEL. September 23, 1940. [According to an Invercargill authority on suction gas-producer plant for motor-vehicles, to whom the letter was shown, the loss of power in an engine with a 6 to 1 compression ratio would be no more than 12J to 15 per cent., not 40 per cent, as quoted in the letter. He could not agree with the claim that the fitting of producer plants to tractors would make them unfit for their job. Referring to tests which had been made some years ago on a motorlorry the authority said that the guaranteed fuel consumption for a three-ton lorry fully loaded and running under the same conditions as with petrol, was 3001bs for a 109-mile journey, and the cost, taking £4 a ton as the price of graded coke, would be 10/9. The same vehicle, running on petrol would require about 17 gallons of that fuel for the same amount of work, so that for equal fuel cost the petrol would have to be supplied at just over 7Jd a gallon.]