FUEL FROM COAL.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20789, 24 February 1933, Page 6

FUEL FROM COAL.

ENLIGHTENING FACTS. Notable progress has been made in the successful production on a commercial scale of motor fuel from British coal, and recently somo enlightening facts were made public by tho chairman of directors of Low Temperature Carbonisation, Ltd., which has, for some tinio been engaged in this enterprise. The company, .it is stated, is now working on a very profitable basis. At present, the company has 550 retorts operating in three different centres in England, and great extensions of plant arc contemplated. Tho motor spirit produced is of exceptional purity and clearness, and is claimed to possess antiknock qualities which far exceed those of tho ordinary product, and to be an ideal car fuel. The company is also devoting its attention to the production of fuel oil for naval purposes, and has already delivered a bulk consignment te tho Admiralty, while fuel oil for Diesel engines is also being won, and it irreported that this has given good results under tests carried out by motorbus interests. It is said, however, that tho continued success of the concern depends upon the encouragement of the consumption of "Coalite," a smokeless domestic fuel, which is a by-product obtained in the manufacture of tho motor fuel. At present, tho chairman of directors stated tho consumpti." of "Coalite" represented less than 1 per cent, of the total domestic fuel used in Britain, but he anticipated that such a demand for it could be created that it would be possible eventually to turn out yearly at a good profit more than 550,000 tons pf oil and petrol derived from coal.