PETROL FROM COAL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4186, 15 September 1939, Page 2

PETROL FROM COAL

SYNTHETIC OIL FUELS. “Probably no discovery has so completely revolutionised the world in so short a time as the internal combustion engine, and the provision of an adequate supply of fuel for our cars and aeroplanes is prob Ably a sufficient justification fbr turning our attention to the fuel probleYn,” said Dr H. G. Denham, Professor of Chemistry at Canterbury University College, in an address to the Geographical Association of Canterbury. “Varying estimates have been given as to the life of the oil wells at present in sight, and these estimates rarely exceed 20 years, for one must remember that the rate of increase of fuel oil consumption has in recent years been stupendous, and is likely to be even greater. Additional supplies, whether natural or synthetic, are therefore of paramount importance to the civilisation of to-day. Refined petrol consists of about 85 per cent, carbon and 15 per cent, hydrogen. Coal is largely built of the same two constituents, but in the proportion of 95 to five. The development of the modern hydrogenation process for obtaining petrol from coal involves so acting upon- the coal with hydrogen as to increase this hydrogen ratio to that pertaining in • petrol.”