SMOKELESS FUEL

Evening Star, Issue 20167, 6 May 1929, Page 1

SMOKELESS FUEL

DR SINNATT ON A GROWING INDUSTRY Dr F. S. Sinnatt, of (In' Fuel Research Board, delivered (lie inaugural lecture of a course, approved by (ho University of London, on ‘ Coal Carbonisation,’ at the Sir John Cur, Technical Institute, Abigail', recently. Dr Sinnatt said that it was sonic times overlooked that, the London area was the largest coal carbonising centre in the wrrlcl. Altogether 17,000,000 tons of coal were carbonised in the gasworks in Great Britain in 1927, and of ibis total 5,600,000 terns were carbonised within (lie London area. 1 f-ndon, therefore, was responsible for onc-tl ird of the gas carbonised in the ci al industry. Coal carbonisation was a growing industry. Gondoliers did not like dirt and fogs, and in the near future any product that was smokeless would bo, sure to create a demand. At present (here were five plants being installed in the neighbourhood of London to produce smokeless fuel at which live separate systems were in use. When coal was carbonised the way in vldcli it. behaved depended on (ho inorganic renviiinerts it contained. Professor Wheeler, of sh.cil*cld University, had recently devised a met hod called the rational analysis of coal, ant had so found a means of splitting (ho coal up into three constituents This was going to he a very important method of examination, not only from the point of view of carbonisation. It was also capable of wide.' application. At the Fuel Research Station they possessed a plant by which they could convert 60 per cent, of coal into a ton ol oil. By taking a non-caking coal they found that by adding a small quantity of hydrogen they could obtain a product that was highly caking. This result they had reached as part of a systematic experiment, and it had given them much food for thought. As yet they did not understand the process which gave them the result. Tlu next, step might bo that it could be applied commercially. Tins made one tli'nk very deeply a,bout the scientific aspects of coal and ii-s possible technical ap plication.