WITH PETROL, MAKES GOOD MOTOR FUEL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 64, 17 March 1931, Page 8

WITH PETROL, MAKES GOOD MOTOR FUEL.

BENZOLE BEEN MADE IN LONDON FOR FOUR YEARS

. Knowing that the absence of any excise duty on motor spirit manufactured m the Dominion is essential to the success of any such undertaking, the Christchurch Gas, Coal and Coke Company has not committed itself to the project of manufacturing benzole from C< ct> ** as ' The question in the House of Representatives was tabled with the idea of ascertaining whether the Gov. ernment would guarantee that no excise duty would be put on the locally, manufactured article.

A London firm has had an experimental plant working for about four years, and as a result has ordered e plant to treat 75,000,000 cubic feet of coal gas per day, according to Mr F. W J. Helton, engineer to the Christchurch Gas Company. He states that during the Great War virtually all firms were extracting benzole from coal for explosives. but after the war this costly process did not pay. However, a new process had been discovered, and this was opening up new possibilities. The article produced in England was a mixture of benzole and petrol in equal proportions, and was proving a very popular motor fuel. It brought a price Id per gallon dearer than ordinary petrol, but about 15 per cent more power could be obtained from it. Much Richer Than PetroL

Benzole was very much richer than petrol, and the ordinary carburetter could not be adjusted to consume it neat. Mr Belton states that for nearly a .year he has been using in his car a mixture of benzole and petrol, with magnificent results. Benzole could not be used for boiler firing, for which crude or fuel oil was needed, but was f° r only internal combustion engines such as those fitted to motor-cars and aeroplanes.

If the industry were started in New Zealand, the article produced would not appreciably lower motor transport costs, but would provide work for more men, and would, as far as the Christchurch company was concerned, mean the use of an extra 2000 tons of coal each -year. That would make for more work in the mines and more goods traffic on the railways. The recovery of benzole from gas dated back neariy twenty years, and in England and the United States of America, where the manufacture of tar was on an enormous scale, benzole was extracted from tar.

.Jf the plant, which involved a considerable outlay, were established in Christchurch, the coal gas would first be extracted from the coal and then the benzole from the coal gas. Coal gas was too rich to be sent out neat to consumers, and was diluted with water gas. Coal gas from which benzole was extracted would, for use m the mains, require less dilution to bring it down to the proper burning strength.