CHEMICAL DEVELOPMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1934, Page 6

CHEMICAL DEVELOPMENTS

MEANS OF UTILISING COAL POSSIBILITIES IN THE DOMINION. BEST SCIENTIST SENT ABROAD. PROCESS OF HYDROGENATION. The profound significance of the application of modem developments m chemistry to the problem of the utilisation of coal was mentioned by Dr. F. Marsden, Director of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in conversation last night. His remarks were of particular, interest to Taranaki with its large coalfields. The difficult position of the coal industry, Dr. Marsden remarked, was due to steadily declining consumption. This was partly the result of its replacement by oil and electric power, but more particularly because of improved efficiency in its use, so that less coal produced the same amount of power as formerly. Even modem grates were of such a design that less coal produced the same heat. Thus less and less coal would be required, and with the same number of mines costs could not be brought doivn to the necessary level. It looked as if salvation lay through the utilisation in the chemical industry of some of coal’s constituents, which had a higher value than merely as fuel. The possibilities, that might prove- satisfactory, of the hydrogenation of coal for the production of oil and the valuable by-products opened up a remarkable prospect. • The department was sending its best fuel chemist to England and Germany to study the large-scale experiments into the hydrogenation process at.present under way. Thus his department was in close touch with the work, which was impracticable in New Zealand at present because of the large capital cost. However, these large experiments would probably result in a simplified type of apparatus that would be within the Dominion’s means. In England the experiment was being conducted by Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. into bituminous coal. The British Government was backing it to the extent of a substantial remission ©f excise duties. Herr Hitler was whole-heartedly behind the German experiment, in which brown coal was being used, and had recently announced a three-year programme, working up to the production of 1,000,000 tons annually, or 300,000,000 gallons. At present the production was 400,000 gallons. The whole business was a complex one, for to be economical there had to be slight extensions of the plant to produce things other than oil. For instance, there were nitrogenous manures.

Other highly valuable by-products were the synthetic resins, of which one and two per cent were synthesised in the process. These concluded such things as the bases of plastic moulded materials, such as bakelite, which were the substances of the future. In 30 years the world would be in an age of synthetic, plastic moulded construction. Steel would be almost a thing of the past its place being taken by the light, non-corrodable alloys of magnesium and aluminium and stainless steel.

All this industrial development would enable the proper use of the Dominion’s power supplies. Very much greater power could be developed at a cost low enough for the development of industry. New Zealand’s power schemes had been only half-developed, and further development of such schemes as Waitaki and Arapuni. would result in cheapened unit costs, which was necessary if the electrochemical industries were to develop.