Producer Gas the Staple Fuel?
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['RIVING a producer-gas vehicle was Lignite different from driving one propelled by petrol, and drivers needed to be educated to the new requirements if best results were to be obtained, emphasized Mr. Frank H. Dutson, a Leeds commercial-vehicle specialist, in a lecture given last Monday to the Leeds Section of the Institute of the Motor Trade.
A danger, he continued, was that if trouble arose because a driver did not understand the producer-gas principle or neglected the. plant, or even if there were engine trouble which had nothing to do with the gas plant, there might be a tendency to say producer gas was " no good."
Drivers must endeavour to grasp the principle on which the plant worked, and readjust their ideas as to driving. For example, one could not get the same acceleration with a gas vehicle as with a petrol vehicle; on the other hand, a producer-gas engine would " hold on" when climbing a bill in a manner more akin to what one was accustomed to with an oil engine.
Explaining that reductions of power loss could be effected by machining the cylinder-bead face, replacing concavetopped pistons with flat ones, or fitting specially shaped pistons, Mr. Dutson said the piston aspect of the matter st24 was receiving close attention from piston manufacturers.
As to the intensive research work in progress in connection with fuel for vehicle gas producers, experts were hoping to produce a standard fuel which would be made available in large quantities throughout the country. .Those engaged in this work were fully appreciative that it was a matter of national necessity. These experts were concentrating upon the production of a uniform fuel which would be satisfactory in ash and moisture content, and would sweep away all those difficulties arising from inequality in fuel.
After discussing the merits of producer gas as compared with town gas in bags or cylinders, and with electric traction, Mr. Dutson expressed the opinion • that if the war lasted long enough the producer-gas plant might become one of the staple means for operating vehicles in this country.
'We must' get more knowledge Of these plants," Mr. Dutson concluded, " because, so far as I can see, if the war goes on for any length of time this is the only solution to the road-transport •difficulty arising in this country out of the need to conserve petrol."