OIL FROM COAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 291, 21 September 1935, Page 8

OIL FROM COAL

PRODUCTION IN BRITAIN. SPREAD OF NEW INDUSTRY. Reference was made in the House of Commons recently to the steady development of oil supplies from British coal 1 . Although the early stages have hardly been passed, the record of actual accomplishment is good enough to stir the imagination and awaken bold hopes, writes W. R. Gordon (director of the Coal Utilisation Council) in the “Observer.” From its inception the Coal Utilisation Council has been closely identified with this question, the importance of which from a national point of view can hardly be exaggerated. It is our ultimate aim to make Britain independent- of foreign fuel. Some years may pass before this is brought about, hut steady progress will continue until we are able to supply all our requirements of oil and petrol from the distillation or carbonisation of our own coal.

East yeai' 1,230,000,000 gallons of fuel were consumed by the motoring public, the great hulk of it being imported. The total importations of foreign fuel are in the neighbourhood of 2,000 million gallons, and the cost some £27 millions. More Work For Miners. The recent growth of our home supplies of motor spirit is shown by the following figures:—

This is the product of hydrogenation, shale oil, and both high and low temperature carbonisation. By next month we shall he getting sixty million gallons, and when the hydrogenation plant operated by Imperial Chemical Industries at Billingliam has been at work for a full year the total should rise to ninety million gallons, or more if new plants come into production. Billingham alone can supply fortyfive million gallons of motor spirit in a year, which is equal to 33 per cent, of our total consumption. Of this probably about two-thirds is by direct hydrogenation of coal and one-third by hydrogenation of tar and creosote. For every ton (300 gallons) produced by this process about 3J tons oi coal are required for the process itself and for ancillary operations, including tho production of hydrogen power. Some 350,000 tons of coal per annum are, therefore, required to meet the present requirements of; the Billingham plant, and this demand provides work for 1900 miners besides 1000 other men employed on the plant. * Taking into account the production of benzole at gas works and coke ovens and the growing output from lovv temperature carbonisation plants, of which nine were in operation last year, the coal-oil industry provides work for a largo and increasing number of miners, distributors, and others employed in the various processes. It has been seriously suggested in some quarters that low temperature carbonisation by itself would render tho country independent of imported motor spirit. This is unlikely.

interesting Developments, An interesting development is to be seen in the recently concluded arrangement for the hydrogenation of creosote from high temperature, and tar from low temperature, carbonisation. In addition arrangements have been made for the early marketing of a fuel for use in Diesel or compression ignition engines. When it is realised that some 7400 vehicles with engines of this type are on the roads, it will he deal that petrol alone is not sufficient lor the needs of the motor industry. There is no doubt that the Go\emment’s preferential scheme for homeproduced fuel, which provides a guarantee for a term of years, has cxerciset a highly stimulating effect; the figures themselves show it. But developments are taking place in many parts of the country on a scale that should in the course of time reduce these figures to insignificant proportions. New coke ovens for benzole are going up in Scotland; a new works is m course of construction at Irafford Park, Manchester, and should bo producing by the end of the year; and a big plans is building at Seaham with a programme involving 500 tons a day. These are instances of a great activity. Not all may prove successful at first, but there js nowadays a body of experience to serve as a guide which in the recent past was lacking,. The Coalition Utilisation Council since its inception lias fought for a dearer recognition of the national importance of this subject, and is leaving no stone unturned to promote the more scientific utilisation of coal in all its forms. , It is obvious that these plants must he near ample supplies of suitable coal, and served by adequate transport for the movement of raw materials and the finished product. That is to say, the new works must almost certainly come to the coalfields, where all these facilities already exist; and it would he unreasonable 1° suppose that nine i of the new activity will not take, plaee in the distressed areas, themselves coalfields, to the benefit of unemployed miners.

1931 38 million gallons 1932 39 ,, „ 1933 45 ' 1934 52 ",