MOTOR SPIRIT FROM COAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 41, 9 July 1914, Page 7

MOTOR SPIRIT FROM COAL.

AT 1% PER GALLON. London, May 22. A demonstration was given last week by Messrs Oil and Carbon products (Limited) of the new ,fonri of plant for the carbonization of coal according to the Del Monte process, which they have erected at the Thorneycroft Works, Chiswick. There are five retorts in all, one standing alone, while the other four are combined in a bunch with common feeding and discharging appliances. The retorts consist of long mild steel tubes inclined at a slight angle to the horizontal. The, coal or other material under treatment is fed in at the lower end and slowly traversed up the tube by means of an Archmidean screw. A tube passes through the middle of the screw, and into it from the upper end air and gas arc ejected and burnt. At the same time the exterior of the screw containing the screw is heated by a series of gas burners, so that the coal is heated on both sides, and no portion of it is more than l%in. or 2in. from a source of heat. The temperature is so regulated that it increases from the lower to a point beyond the middle, but decreases .again at the top. The temperature employed for carbonization range from 900 to 300deg. P., but are varied to suit the material under treatment. When the retorts are in operation, a, stream of cold gas is passed in at the upper end and sweeps right through to the lower end. The purpose for this arrangement is to carry off the hydrocarbons that are liberated bv the distillation, at the temperature 'Of their formation and sweep them down to the cooler part of the retort, whero they are condensed; and the advantage is claimed that in this way the useful yield is increased, the hydrocarbons notbeing subjected, as in other processes of carbonization, to high temperatures which break them down. According to a report by Mr W. J. Atkinson Butterfield, who carried out a test on a sample of Ballycastle cannel from Antrim, costing 7s per ton delivered to the retorts, the .yield per ton of canncl was 7.4- gallons of motorspirit, 17.6 gallons of heavy fuel oil, 37.51b; of paraffin wax. 511b. pitch, and r>4!/ ; lb. of sulphate of ammonia. He states that if motor spirit were regarded as a by-product of the process and the other products were sold at current market values, the cost of pro- I duction of the motor-spirit would he less t,haH 11/, dl 1 /, d a gallon.