OIL FROM COAL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4514, 3 July 1937, Page 2

OIL FROM COAL

EPERIMENTAL PLANT. POSSIBLE ESTABLISHMENT IN AUSTRALIA. Canberra, Jyne 24. A second report to the .Federal Government from the Commonwealth Hydrogenation Committee repeats the advice given about a year ago that the Commonwealth Government at this stage should not encourage the establishment of plants for the production of oil from coal. The committee proposes, however, that tests should be continued by Imperial Chemical Industries, Limited, on black coal, and that teats should be made in Germany on Australian brown coal. The committee also proposes that "Great, Britain and the Dominions should co-operate in meeting the costs of a large-scale test in some Empire country of the Fischer-

Tropsch process of oil production. This process is considered to be giving encouraging results in Germany. The report confirms the estimates published some months ago that ai subsidy, ranging up to about Is 3d a gallon, would be necessary. It is estimated that the cost of producing petrol from brown coal would slightly exceed that of production from black coal. A plant, with an output of 45,000,000 gallons a year would cost £11,000,000 if operated on black coal, or £12,000,000 if operated on brown coal and employing the hydrogenation process. A plant based on the Fischer-Tropsch process with a capacity of 9,000,000 gallons a year, would cost £3,000,000. Defence Measure. The proposal that a plant to test the Fischer-Tropsch process by joint contributions from Britain and the Dominions has been submitted to the Federal Cabinet. In Federal quarters it is considered

that the adoption of this suggestion might result in the erection of the proposed experimental plant in Australia. Since such a.-course would provide a self-contained source of oil fuel for emergencies in. the Pacific, it is. believed that the British Government would favourably consider a contribution to its cost as a defence measure.