Little Effect On Petrol Imports

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 6, 18 August 1933, Page 42

Little Effect On Petrol Imports

New Zealand Oil Wells Not Nearly Sufficient to Supply Our ‘NeedsWhen Will the World’s Coal and Oil Supplies be Exhausted.

R. A, D. MONRO, M.Se., Lecturer in Chemistry at Victoria University College, has just completed a series of W.H.A. talks from 2YA. The subject of Mr. Monro’s series was "This Chemical Age," and the following are interesting extracts from one of the talks. ‘ 8 Ls] o OW far is it possible for New Zealand to be self-sufficient in motor spirit? Thig is 2 question which many New Zealanders ask, and one to which it is impossible to give a final answer. For there are quite a number of processes to be considered, some of them capable of supplying a part of the de: mand, but none of them seriously chaiJenging the importers of petrol for the larger part of our. petrol consumption. s % QNB must ‘place first of all our locul oil wells. New Plymouth is actually producing a heavy oil, yet not in quantities which challenge the oil companies, Kotuku, on the West Coast, produced oil many years ago, and the country near Gisborne has been proved for oil. In spite of a considerable amount of developmental expenditure, the yields are at present small. Oilshale, rock saturated with oil, has been proved in several places. An attempt was made some years ago to work the deposits at Orepuki, but without a great deal of success. cad 9 to OlL from coal has long attracted the attention of chemists, and even as a by-product of gas-making some oil can be recovered. The tar liquor from the tar pits yields a small quantity of inflammable spirit; benzene, toluene and zylene are the technical names of the substances in this spirit; yet the total possible yields are small. A considerable amount of the most volatile of these three liquids, benzene, stays in the gas and contributes to the heating value of the gas in use. Benzene is an excellent motor spirit

either burnt alone or mixed with staridard petrols. Cars run rather better on it than on ordinary petrol, and English motorists will pay id. per gallon more for it. It is not hard to "strip" gas of this substance. If the gas is

passed over "activated" charcoal the benzene stays in the charcoal, and cau be recovered from it by simple distillation. But the possible recovery is small. . a * PHD heating of coal in gas-making is really high temperature carbonisation. Low temperature carbonisation has the advantage of producing a

high grade fuel, instead of coke, a greater yield of liquid fuel, but less gas. It is already working in the Waikato coal field, helped by the fact that the railways can use the residual fuel, where the original coal is less suitable. The future of the process appears to depend on the sale of the carbonised residue; it apears to have a heat value at least one-third greater than the original coal, and this residue is rather more than half the original weight of the coal. When one adds transport costs on the lesser weight of high-grade fuel, one can realise ‘its possibilities. nu HE "hydrogeneration of coal" is still another process. Invented by Bergins in Germany, it is sometimes known as Berginisation, Powdered ecoul is heated in an atmosphere of hydrogen under high pressure. An oil forms not unlike the crude oil of the petrol field. The technical skill necessary to obtain hydrogen cheaply and to work under high pressure is considerable, but has been developed in Burope in connection with the Haber process for synthetic ammonia. The Bergins process has high yields of motor spirit, and has been brought nearly to the paying point, LARGE plant is shortly to commence manufacture in England, and it is hoped to supply Bngland with-up to 30 per cent. of its motor fuel. The point should be made, ,however, that the English works are starting only under a guarantee of tax remission, so that its working is partly political rather than purely economic. No doubt the strategic value of being able t9 produce oil fuel for the Navy within the country has been a factor in its encouragement, and the assistance to coal mining will have a bearing on unemployment. In the meanwhile, chemists have been working on the hydrogeneration of crude heavy oils from petrol wells, and have shown that 4 similar process converts heavy oils into petrol and "cracked" motor spirit of inferior grades into higher grade products. It appears that a rival to the Bergins process may come from the oil industry itself. ¥ * * NSTEAD of burning the vegetation of previous ages in the form of coal, it might be better to use the vegetation of to-day in the form of alcohol. Alcohol ean be used as a substitute for petrol, for although it is not suitable for standard motor engines, the modification of carburettor and compression ratio are well known to engineers. Almost all vegetable waste can be fermented, and the fermentation produces alcohol. .Special .crops could be grown rich in starch or sugar -such crops as the potato or-sugar beet-and fermentation industries could produce alcohol from -these -crops at a not altogether unreasonable price.