OIL FROM COAL

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3303, 30 May 1931, Page 2

OIL FROM COAL

LORD RUTHERFORD'S COMMENT.

In view of the importance to Great Britain of her coal industry, and the possibility that the near future may bring about a complete displacement of coal by oil fuel in the more important avenues of consumption, it is of considerable interest to note the opinions expressed by Lord Rutherford in the House of Lords last week with respect to the production of liquid fuel from coal. The idea to which Lord Rutherford referred is not novel, nor are the processes untried. Experimental work in the preparation of crude oil from coal is technically well developed, and it has even been predicted that the salvation of the British coal-mining industry will ultimately be achieved by the development on a commercial basis of the various processes of carbonisation and hydrogenation which Lord Rutherford had in mind when he spoke of the researches that have already been carried out. It is not difficult to appreciate the desirability of Britain possessing an adequate oil supply of her own that will render her independent of the foreign wells which are at present her main recourse. In the absence of any present alternative Great Britain has been compelled to pay an enormous sum annually for foreign oil and motor spirit. If, as Lord Rutherford has indicated, industrial science has found a way out of the difficulty, there would appear to be every reason why the experimental work on the processes should be continued. Oil from coal, it seems, cannot, in existing circumstances, compete economically on equal terms with the natural oils from the earth, but there may well be other considerations that make it worth while from an Imperial point of view to encourage research in the matter. Lord Rutherford suggests that petrol prices may not always remain at their present low level, in which case it would be desirable that Great Britain should be in a position to make use of her large coal resources. There is scientific authority for the view that it would be possible to provide the bulk of the oil requirements of Great Britain from existing coal supplies, and it is highly probable that no small proportion of the demand for oil in Australia and New Zealand could be supplied from the coal deposits in these countries.