Minister Says
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Government Producer Gas Policy is Dead Right
Lords Seek Explanation of Why Scheme is Behindhand, and Emphasize Urgency of Spegding It Up
CHAMP1ON of producer gas in the House of Lords, the Duke of Montrose, was again on his feet recently, for this cause, having been prompted to ask the Government certain questions about the present • position, by information that had reached him to the effect that the Minister of War Transport's prodncergas programme was hehindhand.
He reminded the House that Lord Leathers had stated in July last that designs were completed, that orders for 2,500 plants had been placed and that deliveries would shortly commence at --„,400 per week. He said he thought the House would like to know how many vehicles were now running on producer gas, what mileage they had covered, whether they had actually saved liquid fuel and if the Minister was satisfied.
With regard to the 10. per cent. vehicle conversion scheme, he said that on that basis Glasgow Corporation should have had -an allotment for 47 buses, but that he understood . that actually it had received allocation for only 12. He was .informed that 35 municipalities had ben asked. to convert on the_ 10 per cent. basis; lithe position was the same With them as with Glasgow he thought their' Lordships would like to know why. He bad a feeling that the Ntiiiidter was not making enough use of the capacity and experience of private concerns. The steel allotment to these was on' the basis of 351 .units among six concerns -for six months; that meant 2.1 units-each per week. They toed not hope to•surviye on that.
Then he reminded Members of the skill which the Tilling organization had displayed in helping with the, development of the present Government plants, and of the pioneer work in connection with bus operation that had been done by the Highland Transport concern, and informed them that now Glasgow Corporation was developing a system of applying producer gas to oil ▪ engieed vehicles. • This was enabling a bus that formerly did 9 m.p.g. to do 25-30 miles to a gallon of oil fuel. He quoted 5,009,000 gallons a year as a saving that might result from this step. These were instances of the progress that could result from the efforts of private concerns, The Duke said he had seen a letter from the Ministry giving operators the right to choose what kind of producer they liked, and asked if this freedom applied also to Government Departments. Lord Leathers replied that it did.
Turnig to the matter of fuel, he queried the availability of enough anthracite for '50,000 vehieles, remarked on the ruling out of activated gas coke and mentioned charcoal as a possible and desirable alternative. Lord Pentland then spoke. He referred first to the Government plans being no longer a mystery, and then to the fact that producer gas represented the only large-scale alternative to , liquid fuel, for road transport. It was very desirable that the range' of fuels which plants could use should be extended.
Lord Sempill, after paying a tribute to Sir Alfred Faulkner, asked whether the coke that was—he tinderstriod—to be the subject of experiment, was to be activated or not. He also inquired whether LordLeathers intendedto intr,oduce any .further type of plant and to order plants additional to the 10,000 specified in the original programme. The Minister of War Transport, in replying to these questions, said that by the, middle of January some 590 p.s.v. units bad been distributed and the staffs of the 'companies concerned were now gaining, experience in the use of producer gas. Further deliveries of this model would be at the rate of 300-400 a month and production would be completed by July 31. As for the goods-vehicle plant, he • hoped to get nearly 400 in March rising to nearly 1,300 in May. Production should he completed by August. He expressed appreciation of the co-operation that had been forthcoming from the Tilling organization and from London Transport. So long as it was necessary to be confined topne special fuel, no object ' would be served by going beyond 10,000 plants. This lent importance to the experiments that were now proceeding with high-temperature coke. He thought it would have to be activated. ,
Since the Government decided to embark on *the producer-gas scheme, the war situation, ai it affected road transport, had considerably. changed. Then the primary concern was to save imported fuel, whereas now it was even more important to economize, in rubber. Producer gas, not only would not help in saving rubber, but also might lead to wastage, because the lower power entailed smaller loads, whilst the pay-load was dlininished by
the weight'of the apparatus. • The particrilarvalue of the producergas scheme, Lord Leathers continued, Was that it would spread practical knowledge . among operators and establish' a . nucleus .of drivers and mechanics with kno*ledge of the use of gas, against the possibility of war circumstances compelling us to turn over to producer gas On a big scale. However, he was very happy to say that operators had responded extremely well to, the scheme. His Department had been promised the co-operation of all the organizations representing road transport. The reactions of the 'Technical Press had been most encouraging. In connection with alternative fuels generalry, out of .a total of 11,615 road . vehicles operating on alternative fuels, only 1,504 were running on producer gas. Some 6,412 ran on electricity, a form of power suitable for only short journeys,. 1,200 were running on coal gas and over 1,400 on creosote. Research was being pursued to improve the performance of the producer-gas plant and to widen the range of fuels it could consume. He was. quite open-minded about future types. The number, 351, which the Duke had quoted as that given to the proprietary makers, was precisely the number these manufacturers had sought to keep them going.
He was confident that the Government policy had secured the beat practical balance between the maximum use of pnaducer gas and the minimum disturbance to the general war effort.