SUBSTITUTES FOR PETROL

Evening Star, Issue 22621, 13 April 1937, Page 12

SUBSTITUTES FOR PETROL

FRANCE SEEKS HEW MOTOR FUEL 1 Since France produces barely one-i sixth of the fuel needed for her mechanised army, the question arises of finding. a substitute “ national ” fuel of quality and yield, writes Rene Hombourger. As .a contribution to the solution of the problem these following facts are presented concerning the use! of city or illuminating gas for the purpose. Practical and conclusive experw ments have been carried out at Trionville, on the banks of the Moselle River, where the Maginot' line erect* an insuperable wall of cement and steel,: The Lower-Moselle Transportation Company has actually supplied its vehicles with illuminating gas. Gas-operated vehicles in the form of trams have been in existence since 1893, hut it was not until 1917 that England and France were compelled to return to this medium due to lack of liquid fuel. And in 1918 the Paris Gas Company furnished two. cars with illuminating gas. They made tests on a touring car and on a truck showing that.one - litre of gasoline could he replaced by 1-7 cubio metres of gas. Now France wants, above all, to nd herself of economic dependence on foreign countries and the use of lighting gas as a national fuel can but promote this effort effectively. Therefore, this gas produced by more than 800 factories and coke-making centres which’ are located througout the whole country at average distances of 2S miles, is destined to become France’! national fuel. Nor is lighting gas the only lik« fuel available. Methane,, water gas and benzine would give almost , identical results. Further, the manufacture of lighting gas itself iavolves the use of coal. This coal, burned; in our furnaces, gives off energy which in general is badly utilised, whereas, when it is distilled, it supplies: coke which is an excellent substitute for coal "r lighting gasj benzol, for motors and the chemical industry j tar, and a quantity of byproducts. N : r "- Now it is a secret to no one to-day that if, in an automobile motor, the carburretor is replaced with a set of devices into which a system of pipes carrying calibrated gas and air empties, the motor will function normally. Not only will it run. more smoothly when this fuel is used in preference ta others, but also, if the rate of condensation in the motor is increased slightly* its yield will be improved-in considerable proportions. It only, remains, then, to arrange foil the storage of the gas m the cars., Iff has been condensed in bottles at 200 f kilogram pressure. And with this- ii* mind, the Lower-Moselle Transporta* tion Company has built a condensing station in wiuch there are three vast rooms: in the first there is a condenser and a moving table, the hourly capacity of the condenser being 70 cubio meters of compressed gas; the second room is reserved for all the electrio equipment, that is, for the motor, the apparatus for making it go and a safety, device for stopping the machine automatically if an untoward incident occurs; finally, the third room, called th® “ storage cell room,” contains ’ three largo circular containers placed ou( beton bases and in which, when not in use, the gag is at a of 250 kilograms. In this way cars being loaded at 250 kilograms, they can empty the gas in the storage cells ini® the bottles till th© pressure balance i! reached.

The gas is stored at 200 kilogram* in eight bottles identical to those 1 used for oxygen and may be placed either on the *ds of the engine body or on the roof. By a steel piping system, the gas is conducted to an expansion davice, which lowers the gas to the pres-' sure which the motor car uses. The gaa thus reduced reaches the carburretoP as a “mixed” gas for admission into the cylinder. Here, then, is the base fcpra aew industry which may do grefi service iaf the cause of the automobile in France*