OIL FROM COAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 22, 26 July 1939, Page 10

OIL FROM COAL

(To the Editor.! IJ Sir, —One of the problems of New' h Zealand from the national efficiency j n and safety point of view is the question \tc of liquid fuel in sufficient quantities! a for national use. The recent opening ! v of the Bolsover low-temperature car- o:

ibonisation plant in Derbyshire (England) calls attention to the progress i being made in the production of this ; class of fuel. At the pithead today motor fuels, fuel oils for Diesel engines ■sulphate of ammonia to fertilise the soil, a smokeless fuel for domestic use ; and a range of tar acids which have sc high a germicidal power that they are : expected to have a great influence or Ithe future of disinfectants—all these (valuable articles of everyday use are produced at the pithead from the raw material of coal. The success of this new industry in England is assured for, when the British Minister oj j Mines (Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd) official!} opened this plant last May. it was statec; that the oil output from this plant foi the year was estimated at 10,000,00( gallons and was all allocated to orders placed for it. The company runnini the plant was contemplating adding another unit, thereby doubling the outIput. Present results have been reached j after eleven years' research by the ; company's engineers and chemists. II Us claimed that hundreds of difficulties jhave been removed, and the future is ;open for almost unlimited expansion, iWith the progressive spirit shown by !the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C, IWebb) and his departmental officers, j this country should look with confii dence to the support of the Department lof Mines in any attempt, on the lines ! recorded above, to make the most ol jthe coal deposits of this country— ■which are a national heritage.—l am, '. etc.. R.H.S. ; July 23.