PETROL SUBSTITUTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1066, 2 September 1930, Page 9

PETROL SUBSTITUTES

ADVANCES IN SYNTHETIC CHEMISTRY FUELS OF THE FUTURE A fascinating story of the benefits that chemistry may be expected in future years to confer upon the world was related in an interview with a representative of “The London Observer,” by Dr. F. G. Donnan, F.R.S.. Professor of Chemistry at University College. London. Dr. Herman Levinstein has been telling the Society of Chemical Industry that the air might in future supply synthetic fuel, and that the worlds raw materials and power would ultimately be drawn from air, water, soil, and sun; and Dr. Donnan was asked how far this synthetic work has already gone, and what it has actually done? “It has gone very far indeed,” he said. “The bulk of chemistry for the last eighty years has been synthetic. There is nothing new in that—that is to say, in making new things from old. But public attention is now being drawn to it on account of some modern advances in, shall we say, the last twenty years. “The thing that has struck people most is the production of certain important materials by the synthetic process. If you take air, water, and coal, there are three fundamental natural materials and they contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Those are the main constituents of air, water and coal, and the majmdty of organic substances consist of them. Two very important inorganic substances are ammonia and nitric acid, and they consist of hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. Therefore, the majority of organic substances, together with ammonia and nitric acid, are potentially present in air, water, and coal taken together.

“Consider, too. that many explosives, i.e., those used in mining, as well as those used as propellants in guns, and for detonation in shells, are prepared from organic substances containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, by means of nitric acid; and that ammonia and nitric acid in a combined form yield important fertilising material for plant life. Hence one may say that a vast variety of substances of the greatest importance in human civilisation can be obtained from air, water, and coal. SUGAR FROM THE AIR Here are some of the things that are known and practised in chemistry today: From air, steam, and coal, or coke, there can be prepared by wellknown methods, water gas, which is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. From this can be prepared hydrogen gas in great quantities and purity, and this again can be readily combined with the nitrogen of the air to form ammonia. Furthermore, the ammonia can be oxidised by air to nitric acid. “From water gas there can also be prepared, by equally well-known methods, methanol (methyl alcohol! : and by the oxidation of methanol formaldehyde can be obtained. “By the chemical condensation of formaldehyde, effected by the action of alkalies, or by ultra-violet light, considerable quantities of the lower sugars can be prepared—for example, glucose. A proportion of these sugars is not utilisable by the animal organism, but a certain proportion is.” “That is to say; we could eat it’”

“Yes; and hence we. can see glim- ; mering of the possibility of making i sugars which can be eaten and assirri- | lated from air, water and coke. Motor Fuels “Methane, a compound of carbon and hydrogen, can "be prepared from water gas, or it may be obtained by reduction of carbon monoxide, produced by the high temperature burning of coke or charcoal. “From this gas methane, obtained in either of these ways, it is quite possible to prepare acetylene and benzine and other hydrocarbons. Here, then, we have one possible method of making motor fuels which could be used instead of petrol. “Another method which has been suggested is to work directly from water gas and prepare therefrom a mixture of hydrocarbons, alcohols, and other organic compounds. This mixture might also be used as a substitute for petrol. “Another method, which has been already worked out in Germany and England, is the action of hydrogen under pressure on coal, whereby the coal is very largely converted into a liquid mixture of oils, from which, by means of distillation and ‘cracking’ (decomposition by heat), accompanied, perhaps, by a further combination with hydrogen, large quantities of valuable oils can be obtained —petrol, lubricating oil, lamp oil, and fuel oil.” Strategtic Importance of Synthesis “Will this be of use.” Dr. Donnan was asked, “to the present generation?” “All these various methods of preparing liquid fuels from coal have,” he explained, “to compete at the present time with the vast resources w T hich the world still possesses of mineral oil. It is, therefore, difficult to forecast when the manufacture of fuel oils directly from coal will become a formidable competitor of the petroleum oil industry, since it is not easy to say how soon the existing and still undiscovered supplies of petroleum oil will begin t<> run short. “Nevertheless, from the political and strategic standpoint, it is of the highest importance for Great Britain to know that it is perfectly feasible at the present time to manufacture from English coal petrol and fuel oil. so that in case of danger or attack these essential substances would not require to be imported.” The World Sans Coal Sans Oil “And what of the more distant future?”

“In that rather distant future, when the world will no longer possess any more coal or oil, the question may arise how to manufacture fuel and motor oils without using ‘organic’ carbon then no longer present, owing to the exhaustion of the coal and oil supplies of the earth. “One must not forget that the main quantities of carbon existing originally in the primeval atmosphere of this planet are not to be found in coal or oil. but occur chemically combined with lime and magnesia in the vast mountain ranges of limestone and dolomite, together with the chalk. “From these materials, existing on the surface of the earth in vast quantities. it would be quite easy by means of heat (derived from the energy of water power) to produce carbon dioxide. The energy of the water power would also give us electricity, from wffiich. by electrolysis, hydrogen can be easily obtained. “From the carbon dioxide and hydrogen thus produced it would be quite feasible to manufacture much of the motor and fuel oil that the world might then require. The only other predictable method would be the utilisation of natural or artificial photo-synthetic processes. “Such considerations, of course, can only apply to a period several thousand years from now, when, as all authorities agree, the coal and oil will be entirely exhausted.”