Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1928 PETROL FROM COAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 17 January 1928, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1928 PETROL FROM COAL

IT would be a matter of great national importance if the activities of enterprising people, who are working assiduously in Taranaki, in the East Cape district, and in the vicinity of Murchison, were to result in the discovery of petroleum in payable quantity. New Zealand's annual hill for petrol is big, and the money so spent is lost to the country: plainly it would .be a great advantage if we could consume, cur own motor spirit. But, even if the attempts to find crude petroleum in New Zealand should fail, it is still possible that the country may be able* before very long, to produco its own petrol by carbonising at a low temperature, coal deposits which at present aro unworked, either because they aro considered to be of inferior quality, or because the market is already supplied by the existing pits.

The three chief scientists engaged in this research work in Europe are Dr. l'Yiedrich Bergius, of Heidelberg, in Germany; Professor Franz Fischer, of the Institute of Coal Research, in Germany; and General Georges Bacart, of Paris. The first-men-tioned of these scientists, it seems, was engaged in this work fourteen years

ago, beforo tho Great War broke out; at atiy rate a German patent for turning coal into oil, lodged in tho United States, was seized by the American Government, when it declared war on Germany, in 1917. For somo years this patent was neglected by the Americans, but recently threo chemists of the United States Bureau of Mines—David W. Smith, J. D. Davis, and D. A. Reynolds—have reported that they have succeeded by means of .laboratory experiments in making considerable progress towards the desired goal. A very interesting quotation from the description of their work is the following: — The kev to these methods of obtaining liquid from solid fuel lies in what is "called a catalyst. Emulating tho proverbial match-maker, the catalyst persuades unwilling but not incompatible chemicals to cast their lots toI gether. In tho synthesis of petroleum ' the gaseous products of tho carbonisation of coal aro passed through a catalytic converter to .produce the synthetic oil. Leave the catalyst out of tlio process, reproducing all the conditions of temperature, pressure, and the proper ratio of materials, and no oil is produced. In the descriptions of foreign processes the materials used and the conditions within the apparatus have been freely told, but the catalyst has been shrouded in deep

secrecy. The Americans mentioned had experx,'inented with.six different catalysts, and the most effective was ono made up of metallic cobalt and manganese oxide with a small amount of metallic- copper. They did not claim that they had discovered a process which is commercially practicable. ' Since they made their report similar research work has been carried out in and it is now claimed—as was cabled on tho 12th irist.— that a public demonstration of the Dvorkovitz system of carbonisation of coal had been successfully made at Slough. Tho. inventor claims that "the two commercial units at Slough, each treating five tons of coal daily, show the following average yield: From a ton of bituminous coal, four gallons of motor spirit, twelve of lamp oil, six of lubricating oil, 24 pounds of paraffin wax, 40 of phenol, 90 of pitch, 24 each of ammonia and sulphur, leaving a residue of IScwt of smokeless fuel of high calorific" value."

Perhaps it is too early to say the problem has been positively solved, since a yield of four gallons of motor spirit from a ton of coal seems hardly to be of high commercial importance, but that is a remarkable result as a beginning. The perfecting of the process and the experimenting with different /qualities of coal may be expected to produce more satisfactory results. The commercial production of petrol from coal seems to be within measurable distance. It looks as if it may sooner or later be possible for New Zealand to reduce her big bill for petrol supplied from abroad, either by the discovery of petroleum in this country or by carbonisation of her coal. In any case, the 'processes which are being evolved in Britain, America and Europe, whereby the valuable constituents of coal are being separated, should prove of great commercial importance when they are perfected, and one of the benefits should be the' lessening of the motorist's bill. In any case, if to the petrol produced from petroleum can be added the petrol contained in coal, it is evident that the motorist and the motor trade are going to be greatly benefited,