FRANCE SEEKS NEW MOTOR FUEL

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 81, 7 April 1937, Page 8

FRANCE SEEKS NEW MOTOR FUEL

Experiments Carried Out

gINCE FRANCE PRODUCES barely one-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 experiments have been carried out at Trionville on the banks of the Moselle River, where the Magmot line erects in 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, but it was not until 1917 that England and France were compelled to return to this medium due to a 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 be replaced by 1.7 cubic metres of gas. Now France wants, above all, to rid herself of economic dependence on forfeigu countries and the use of lighting jgas ns a national fuel can but promote this effort effectively. Therefore, this gas, produced by more than 800 fac-' lories and coke-making centres which iare located throughout the whole country at average distances of 25 miles, is destined to become France’s national ♦furl.

Nor is lighting gas the only like fuel available. Methane, water gas •nd benzine would give almost identi«al results. Further, the manufacture of lighting gas itself involves the use of coal. This ccal, 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; lighting gas; benzol for motors and the chemical industry; tar and a quantity of byproducts.

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 winch 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 to 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 for the storage of the gas in the cars. It has been condensed in bottles at 200ailogram pressure. And with this in mind, the Lower-Moselle Transportation Company has built a condensing station in which there are three vast rooms: in the first there is a condenser and a moving table, the hourly capacity of the condenser being 70 cubic meters of compressed gas; the second room is reserved for all the electric 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 the “storage cell tooid,” contains three large circular containers placed on beton bases and in which, when not in one, the gas is stored at a pressure of 250 kilograms. In this way cars being loaded at 250 kilograms, they can empty the gas in the storage cells into the bottles till the pressure balance is reached

The gas is stored at 200 kilograms In eight bottles identical to those used for oxygen and may be placed either on the side of the engine body or on the roof. By a steel piping system, the gas is conducted to an expansion device, which lowers the gas to the pressure which the motor an usee. The gas thus reduced reaches the carburetor as a “mixed” gas for admission into the cylinder. Here, then, is the base for a new industry which may do great service in the cause of the automobile in France.