LIQUEFYING COAL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 17, 21 July 1928, Page 20

LIQUEFYING COAL

PROGRESS OF GERMAN EXPERIMENTS. Most encouraging progress in the commercial liquefaction of coal was reported by^Director Busch at the annual meeting of the Chemical Trust (Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie), states the "Daily Telegraph." Ho said that the concern's work in this direction had till the end of last year developed in accordance with programme. From the autumn of that year they had put synthetic benzine on to the market in increasing quantities, and had disposed of it without difficulty. By the end of the present year they expected to realise the anticipated production of 100,000 tons. Next year a further increase to about double this quantity could be counted on. The higher output, he said, would involve no addition to their works, as the improvement of the process had enabled them considerably to increase the productivity of their plant. Attempts to manufacture lubricating oils, paraffin, and other products were being continued, and had led to most promising successes. They had used their own lubricants for months, and found them in every way satisfactory. As the outcome of their agreement with the Standard Oil Company, works were being erected in the United States for the experimental application of the German Trust's system of hydrogenation in the. petroleum industry. Including-its mines and other ancillary undertakings, the Chemical Trust at present employs 143,000 persons.