POWER FROM WASTE

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 14, 17 January 1921, Page 6

POWER FROM WASTE

SOURCES OF MOTOR FUEL

CONVERSION OF VEGETABLE MATTER

Increases in the cost of a material invariably stimulate invention to find substitutes, and the process is clearly illustrated in the search for something cheaper than benzine for motor fuel, which seems to be becoming more expensive every month. A file of papers received recently''by the Board of Trade from the High Commissioner's Office shows that much progress has been made in England with processes for the conversion of vegetable matter into fuel. This subject was explained in an address, "Fuel from Waste Vegetation," by Mr. John Wells, to the conference of the Imperial Motor Transport Council, in October, 1920. VALUE OP CHARCOAL. ' " As a fundamental basis," he said, "I looked upon charcoal of quite ordinary quality as having the following value as compared with petrol in an internal combustion engine—namely, three tons of charcoal may be expected to yield the same power as two tons of petrol or kerosene. This formula brings the whole question within the purview of the ordinary man, who is dependent upon a supply of fuel for his machinery, both for stationary purposes and for transport. Providing that an easy and inexpensive method of turning brushwood straw and small vegetable matter into charcoal is provided, then the possibilities of the utilisation of small waste vegetable matter becomes practically unlimited throughout the world, and what, to my mind, is of even greater importance is the fact that the land, estate, or plantation owner may be certain of his fuel without the uncertainties and vagaries of the_ enterprising monopolists who have seized upon and control the world's limited supplies of liquid fuel." METHOD OF GASIFICATION. Mr. Wells claims that, he has evolved such a process, which he has tested with a, demonstration plant in the New Forest. "A choice exists," he states, "between the vegetable fuel producer for : the gasification of the fuel direct and the c/iarcoal producer The former gives a high yield of gas per ton of material, and the latter a low one. If the object in view is merely to get power, the direct gasification of the vegetable fuel in a single operation is often to be preferred, but, if the is to obtain al solid fuel for storage or subsequent use. then the. production of charcoal is to be recommended. Such production is naturally accompanied by a lower yield of gas, usually about SO per- cent, of that obtained on direct, gasification in a singiei j btage. Charcoal produtcion may be : effected with or without recovery of methyl alcohol and acetones as. by-pro-I ducts. Such recovery involves the addi- ! tion of by-products plant, and it is con- ! ceivable that in ii number of cases, where the fuel itself is more valuable than the by-products and wjiere the means of transporting ;>nd marketing the by-producto may not be available, the decision to ignore them will be a &Q«ind one." . ALCOHOL NO PANACEA. •■"I have but little faith," remarks Mr. ) Wells, "in the assumption that either ; alcohol or the by-products of our coal [ lasources will prove a panacea for all ! the requirements of' fuel for transport, ! more especially in cases in which the fuel, is to be transported for lonp distances to the site where it. is required., and I j look upon the future solution of the I problem of transport very largely from the point of view" of developing local resources of fuel on the one hand and on the othei to the development of more suitable means of transport than we are at present employing. ' - - I maintain that the modem high-speed engine is in many ways unsuitable to the vagaries of gas production in small producers, owing to the inherent difficulties of obtaining constant quantity and quality of eras. I maintain, further, that slower means of transport with heavier loads and the utilisation of tractors instead of lorries should be the aim of mechanical transport until such ,-times as . solidly . ponstructed roads are possible. A slowerspeed, biggei-volume engine is a much more practicable proposition than is the I modern type of high-speed petrol en- | sine." Mr. Wells claims that the new fuel process facilitates the use of slower-speed, bigger-volume engines for transport. Al- ■ ready a New Zealander has interested^ himself so keenly in the claims of Mr. Wells that he'has gone to England to inspect the demonstration plant in the New Forest and to buy it if possible.