REPLACING BENZINE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23482, 20 October 1939, Page 14

REPLACING BENZINE

PRODUCER GAS FOR FARM USE OF GREEN WOOD EXPERIMENTS IN AUSTRALIA BY OUIDIBK With restrictions being placed on the use of benzine and crude oil, fanners who are operating tractors and trucks on their farms will be interested in a producer gas plant which utilises green wood in place of charcoal or coal, and which has been invented by a young Australian at Narrekup, 11 miles from Mount Barker, W.A. According to an Australian weekly paper, Mr. M. J. Andrews, a timber mill employee who operates a stationary engine which powers the mill, and also a motor truck which hauls logs from the bush to the mill, has evolved a plant which utilises green jarrah slabs, and frorn, them produces a better gas than from charcoal. Perfectly Clean Gas Tests supervised by engineers from well-known firms have shown that no gumming of valves occurred, as the process ensured a perfectly clean gas at all times. The trouble of burning wood to produce charcoal was eliminated, and when Avork for the day was finished the fuel in the generator was replenished and tho engine could bo started up on the following morning without the necessity of first lighting it up. The green wood producer gas plant has been operating a 25 horse-power engine daily for 15 months, and up to tho present it had not been necessary to overhaul it in any way, as the valves, pistons and cylinder remained clean and free from all signs of corrosion. A six-cylinder truck has also been equipped with a similar green wood producer gas plant for the past eight months. This has stood up to the hardest tests hauling log.s from tho bush, and 40 miles per hour could still easily be maintained from it on the road.

Less Carbonisation The green wood gas, it is asserted, resulted in less carbonisation and a cooler engine than when benzine was used. Mr. Andrews, it is said, built several producer gas plants and discarded them before evolving the outfit now in use. Ho started first burning charcoal, but found that preparing this took too much time. It was then ho began to experiment with green timber. One small dry scrubber was incorporated in tho plant, and a filter-cooling system was used for the gas. This eliminated the use of elaborate scrubbers. The lubricating oil used for the stationary engine had now been in use for four months and had not shown undue deterioration.

It is probable that, with a similar plant, green hard wood such as manuka, which has a low gum content, could bo satisfactorily used in place of charcoal, and that thereby tho cost of operating both stationary and tractor t3'pes of farm engines, normally operated on benzine, could be considerably reduced.