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Cheap Motor Spirit from Coal

6th September 1935
Page 57
Page 57, 6th September 1935 — Cheap Motor Spirit from Coal
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The Duffield Process of Making Alcohol Fuel May Have Vast Commercial Possibilities

SO much attention has been paid during the past few years to means for the home production of motor spirit, and so much expert investigation has been devoted to the low-temperature carbonization and hydrogenation processes, that, when one learns of a new method of manufacturing light fuel from coal that appears to be much more eitiCient than either of these, one naturally views it with a degree of scepticism.

In a pamphlet by Mr. F. Lindley Duffield, chairman and managing director of .Duffield Coal Products, Ltd., Imperial House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2, published last month, there are described the results of experiments in the production from coal of a motor

spirit consisting of an alcohol-hydrocarbon mixture, which are, however, of outstanding interest and may have important consequences.

The author states that by -the Duffield process 1184 gallons of spirit can be produced from one ton of raw coal (slack) used, that is to say, at a cost —at pit head—of 2.35d, per gallon.

Briefly, the' process is stated to be this. Methyl alcohol (CH5O1-1) is obtained from coal and water with a by-product of carbon dioxide, which is frozen out, From one ton of coal,, 24,6, gallons of methyl alcohol can be obtained. Allowing ,1 ton for providing heat for the reactions, the figure becomes 140 gallons.

This product is unsuitable for use as a motor spirit, but, if certain heavy hydrocarbon gases he dissolved in it, the result is an excellent light fuel, giving easy starting and a lively and flexible performance in a standard petrol engine.

These gases are obtained, by the Duffield process, from the coal used for the production of alcohol and for heating, with, of course, a certain a.crifice in the alcohol output, but the final yield is stated to be 1181 gallons per ton.

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