COAL TURNED INTO PETROL

Evening Star, Issue 22228, 4 January 1936, Page 16

COAL TURNED INTO PETROL

Great Britain recently, saw that longheralded process of manufacturing gasoline or petrol from bituminous coal put into practice-with the opening by Mr Ramsay MacDonald of the new Imperial Chemical Industries coal hydrogenation plant at Billingham. Production of gasoline from coal was developed in Germany several years ago by Friedrich Bergius, and the process is substantially that used to-day by tho 1. G. Farbenindustrie in Germany, utilising lignite. Experiments in the United States have been carried on by several independent researchers, tho Standard Oil bringing investigation to the point of commercial production. But Billingham is the first to use bituminous coal in the process and to begin operations on a large scale. It is estimated that in the near future Great Britain will bo entirely independent of all imported oil supplies, with the exception of high-grade lubricating oil. The plant now in operation works 24 hours a day seven days a week, and produces 400 tons of gasoline daily—approximately 45,000,000 gallons a year. The only raw materials necessary in the proc'ess are coal and water. A glance at, the structures involved in the manufacture show how enormous their strength must be to withstand tho enormous stresses of heat and pressure. While 'gasoline is the main product of the Billingham plant, fuel oil, kerosene, and a dozen other “ petroleum ” products can be produced as well by merely controlling the duration of the process. More than £4,000,000 has been spent by Great Britain, in its eight years of research—but without a pooling of patent rights and an exchange of technical information by British, German, and American concerns the present forward step could not have been taken. The Billingham plant needs 000,000 tons of coal a year for production and power purposes. Work is provided directly for 2,000 men. To mine the coal for the plant 2,000 miners are being re-employed, it is stated. Arrangements have been made with two well-known petrol firms to buy tho entire production of Billingham’s petrol. It is being mixed with popular brands of car fuel.