PETROL FROM COAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 28, 3 February 1937, Page 10

PETROL FROM COAL

INQUIRY IN PROGRESS

The Minister of Scientific.and Industrial Research (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) and the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb) in a joint statement made on the West Coast, said that to produce 45,000,000 gallons of petrol from coal, or two-thirds of New Zealand's requirements, would involve a capital cost of £11,500,000, New Zealand currency, and the production cost would be 14d a gallon, including interest, depreciation, raw material, and operating costs and maintenance under the present known methods of hydrogenation or synthetic production. This cost, the statement added, might at present be considered prohibitive, but if a flow of oil should not be found in New Zealand, or if the cost of imported petrol were to rise appreciably or other reasons arose, it might be desirable to produce New Zealand's own supply of liquid fuels.

To obtain the necessary information on which a sound policy may be based, a coal survey of the Dominion had been commenced, starting with certain areas near Westport. This involved a geological study of various fields and of individual seams of coal and quantitative estimates of the amount of coal involved.

In addition, laboratory trials of coal would be carried out. to obtain an estimate of the quality from the point of view of oil production and for other avenues of utilisation which might appear desirable. The work was being carried out jointly by the Departments of Scientific and Industrial Research and Mines, and would be pursued according to programme over the next few years.

The work would entail the mapping out of coal seams in various areas, and analysing coal from these seams, so as to obtain their qualities of usefulness for carbonisation or hydrogenalion. The examination would include complete analyses of the qualities of coke and ash. Investigations had been commenced on tine Blackburn area of approximately 8600 acres, set apart as, a State coal reserve.