SPIRIT FROM COAL

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 185, 8 August 1927, Page 6

SPIRIT FROM COAL

A CHEMISTS EXPLANATION

(To the Editor.)

My attention was arrested bv a Ml -, in your issue of August 5 ; lt " B rather startling caption, publicitv "' ÜB<i " * the results of recent re seard, 0D * ducted at Canterbury College It i s ? *'• that a "very great SiT"" 5 should now bo attached to tTe covery of the {.reduction of petrol correctly, it. coal tar eouiva£ bv V?" illation of a brown coal, when this known thermal reaction has been subLeT'' mvest.g.t.on and been the basis of ££? t0 patented process for over thim ZT7 lished results of the work o fVh£ iLP*" tors the yields of motor spirU * fr.rt.on. are given. The state mm sjmlar product cannot be obtained from Jl New Zealand coals |. entirely confr£ *"£ a 3 every New Zealand coal, from the W grade Central OUgo lignites to Paparo* JZ' anthrame can, under proper conS, Jf treatment, be made to yield some pereenU* of motor spirit, though not in every ejl u amount warranting its commercial d-vln! ment by a distillation process. It wonld .pZ that Mr. Hughson has been misreportedT as a chemist, he could not be guilty of certti. statements presumably attributed to him Tk* garbled misrepresentations and unmeriW embellishments which have attended the publication of developments in these matters in the British Press have, i n recent vewg . often assured the layman that the* oil-from-coal problem has been solved, and have ia *> small measure contributed to the discreditinc of low-temperature carbonisation and allied processes in Great Britain. It i s worthy ef note that while the British newspapers loodlr acclaim recent Continental developments ia the production of synthetic motor fuel, hydrogenation of coal, etc., the German Prest is relatively silent on the matter, due to a stricter supervision and a fuller undersUndii* of the matters which it places before its P ublic - L. V. ELLIS, A.M.I. Chem.E.