THE “DUST ENGINE”

Evening Star, Issue 20139, 2 April 1929, Page 10

THE “DUST ENGINE”

EXHAUST OF ASHES A MOW POWER PLANT. The first “dust engine ” running on pulverised coal instead of fuel oil was described bctore the second international conference on bituminous coal. The “dust engine,” or “ rupamntor,” has been designed by Rudolf Pawlikowski at the Kosnios Engine Works, Goeilitz, Germany. If successful it might cause owners of automobiles to lay in hinsful of coal for their cars at the beginning of the tourist season for use to supplant fluid fuels in the “ gas ” tanks. The report on the “ rupamoor ” read by Professor Willibald C. L. Trinks had a mixed reception, some technicians taking the view that it is only an experimental toy, while others felt that it held out possibilities of great importance. Professor Trinks, regarded as an authority on such matters, said that he had seen several “ ruparaotors ” in operation, and gave them a. qualified endorsement as so far developed, and predicted that they might have usefulness in areas where suitable fuels are available. Tn his statement Air Pawlikowski claimed the “ rnpamotor ” produced power more cheaply than any other heat engine, and that its development is a landmark similar to the introduction of the “gas” engine in 1867 at the Paris Exposition, and the Diesel engine in 1897. Mr Palikowski was a collaborator of Mr Diesel. “ DUST ENGINE ” ACTUALLY OPERATING. The Pawlikowski engine for “ rupamotor ” is its actual operation. Professor Trinks declares. It varies its fuel diet between the powdered brown coal of Germany, peat from Upper Bavaria and wood dust, charcoal, and even rice husks and various meatsIn reading the statement from the inventor, Professor Trinks remarked parenthetically that ho fjelt the “ rupamotors’ ” success has hitherto depended on the availability of the ..German brown coal, which is readily pulverised and crumbled on exposure to air. The engine’s fuel must be powdered to pass through a sieve with 300 meshes to the square inch. . Central power plants with “ rnpaniotors-” equipped, need nob deface a metropolis by being built oil the banks of large rivers, frequently where real estate is Id-rh in value, and where ibev interfere with ilie beauty of the city, since they, need no steam turbine in

order to obtain highest efficiency, it was declared. It is ready to start immediately, without outside heat supply, and therefore saves the time loss of one or two hours’ firing. Au experimental 80 hqrse-power “ rupamotor ” has been run since 1916 with 9,000 hours of operation, it was said.

“Technically,” Mr Pawlikowski wrote, “ the difficulty in designing the engine was to inject pulverised coal dust into a cylinder at the end of the compression, against a pressure ,of about 4301 b per square inch. GIVES EXHAUST OF ASHES. '' The now motor introduces the dust into tho cylinder by an antechamber which works on the plan of a sluice. The engine may ho started on coal only or on oil, and may bo switched from one to tho other dining operation. Tho exhaust is in tho form of irnpalable ash particles, and the exhaust gas is described as free from coal'and choke dust and from any tarry matter. A factory wall situated very dose to the exhaust of the first engine has remained clean without any trace of black. Tho exhaust vapours of the new motor are said to contain less odom than those oT the oil engine and arc, by the use of filters, less offensive in street traffic than the present automobile gases. Dr Bergius, described by Thomas S. Baker, president of the Carnegie Institute of Technology as “ probably the best-known man in the field of fuel technology,” presents a new side of his versatile researches. He is tho author of the Bergius process for eonverting coal into oil, and is also now working on a method of making synthetic foods!

His paper at this session dealt with experiments to transform cellulose ami

lignite into coni. By this way the man who has produced synthetic gasoline and synthetic fuels for man now proposes to reverse the process and attempt to duplicate the work of Nature through the centuries in the manufacturing of coal, in a short time within the test tube. BATHED IN MOLTEN LEAD. The method used!, in brief, consists of beating cellulose at high temperature m a bath of molten lead in a pressure-resisting vessel. The experiment showed that the product or “ end coal ” resulting from cellulose “ is very closely related to natural coal; that tins end coal is of an aromatic nature; and that it is more than likely that a considerable proportion of natural coal is derived from cellulose.” Herr zur Ncddeu introduced, an economic discussion of tbo relationship of economic research in fuel chemistry and capital investments. The hydrogencratiou of coal to production under the Bergius and Fischer processes, he said, “ heralds the advent of a new ally to coal—namely, hydrogen—which bids fair to protect old King Coal from being subdued by bis mighty rival, oil. Bergius and Fischer and others, be said, have taught how to add to coal artificially that which it lacks in hydrogen in order to become a mixture of pure hydrocarbons, such as alcohol gasoline, or rich gas. Natural science, he declared, has now become a form of capital just as important as the monetary form of capital, which is really “ frozen wages,” he said. “ I venture to say that the processes of chemically adding hydrogen to the natural hydrocarbons as contained in coal and petroleums will be‘attractive to the American financier and business man. in spite of the fact that he is wading in natural oil,” ho addct|.