COAL RESEARCH

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 90, 14 November 1939, Page 1

COAL RESEARCH

CHEAP FUEL FOR BRITISH INDUSTRY INVESTIGATIONS MADE The view has been expressed in more than one distinguished quarter in Britain that coal should be regarded as a raw material and not burned in crude form as it it raised from the mine, said Sir. Evan Williams, president of the British Coal Utilisation Association, in a recent address. In point of fact, he said, the coal industry did to an increasing extent regard coal as a Taw material,- as was shown by the immense capital expenditure which it had undertaken in the installation of elaborate coal preparation plant at the collieries. At the same time, the coal industry carried the great responsibility of making the industrial life of the country possible by the supply of cheap heat and power, and at present the fulfilment of this responsibility was largely bound up with encouraging the efficient utilisation of coal in those forms which gave the lowest cost a unit of heat. Solid Fuels For most purposes, the cheapest source of heat and power was coat directly burned on a grate or i!n pulverised form. They had, therefore, concentrated their attention in the first place on the many problems connected with the efficient and effective combustion of solid fuels. Dealing with long-range problems, Sir Evan Williams said they foresaw that the future would call for fuels of accurately-controlled physical characteristics. They were, therefore, investigating with the resources of modern science the. factors which controlled the size and strength of coal and the stability of its moisture content. They had also undertaken a long-range programme of research into pulverised fuel firing, which they believed would play an increasingly important part in industry, and possibly also in marine propulsion. Another programme was connected with the combustion in fuel beds, and this should produce information of the greatest value to large consumers of coal for steam raising. They hoped shortly to extend and greatly acclerate their programme in regard to the use of producer gas— a development that might be of the utmost importance and potential value both for road transport and for lower-powered vessels of the mercantile marine. Though long-range investigation referred mainly to the large-scale industrial uses of coal, the requirements of the domestic and small industrial consumers were by ho means being neglected. Smoke Elimination The coal industry, Sir Evan Williams said, decided several years ago to investigate the possibility of rendering the coal fire almost or quite smokeless, and it had received valuable assistance in its work from the Fuel Research Board. When the new association was formed it was decided to examine the coal fire in all its aspects—the reduction of labour,, the improvement of its ventilating qualities, and the elimination of smoke. All these investigations were now proceeding and notable progress had been made in all of them. Turning to the subject of cooking, Sir Evan said that a development of special interest was that of a solid fuel cooker which would enable the railway companies to use solid fuel instead of gas made from imported oil. This investigation had been undertaken at the request of, and in collaboration with the L.M.S., which had now purchased cookers resulting from their research for installation in its new luxury express trains.