COAL-GAS CONVERSIONS. .
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Recent Developments, Improvements, Hints and Wrinkles.
Waste Gases for Motor Vehicles.
As it is generally recognized to be imperative to husband both petrol and coalgas, the question arises as to whether we should not devote greater attention to the possible utilization of what may be termed waste gases. By this is meant the gases which are produced as the result of specific operations, and which at the moment, from lack of storage and pipe facilities, or absence of suitable mechanical plant, are permitted to escape into the air without performing
an ounCe of useful work. While it is undoubtedly the case that many of these gases possess a very low calorific power, it must not be forgotten that experience with coal-gas has demonstrated the ability to run motor vehicles upon gas of approximately 350 B.T.U.s, In these islands there are many local industries which at the moment are hayi ing a brisk period of activity, and in the prosecution of which various gases are being produced and lost. Yet in these areas there are numerous vehicles ems ployed for transport dutiea. Surely it would prove of material benefit to the country at large if the owners of these vehicles were encouraged to embrace gas. The cost of conversion is relatively low, while the gas could be obtained for a nominal figure, since it would be an easy matter to trap it, to pass it through the purifiers, and thus render it sufficiently clean for vehicular purposes.
For instance, at the moment operations are in progress concerning the preparation of pyroligneous acid, in the course of which an appreciable voltme of gas from the wood under treatment is lost,The yield may be comparatively meagre, Seeing that ir is about 1400 cubic ft. per ton of wood, but it should surely be worth saving_ Similarly the distillation of peat 'might be profitably exploited in those areas where there is an abundance of the 'rawmaterial, seeing that the yield may range from 7000 to 11,000 per ton of -peat, the latter figure comparing favourably with -that cleriyed from coal. -Many other materials are likewise being exploited to-day which under normal conditions were ignored, • each of which is yielding its quota of gas, and which at present is for the most part being permitted to escape. By
facilitating the local utilization of such gases for the propulsion of Motor vehicles, not only would a certain quantity of petrol be released for other more urgent uses, but greater stimulation would be given to the general use of gas as a fuel for motor vehicles.
Post-war Developments.
The impression still lingers in certain circles that the utilization of coal-gas for the propulsion .of road vehicles merely constitutes a passing Phase—that with the return of peaceful conditions there will be a reversion to petrol. Such optimism does not prevail in those runt-. fications of industry which' from their commercial transactions ought to know. At this moment mineral oils are being concentrated to one specific end—the winning of the war. This trend of affairs has brought about the exhaustion of stocks held by firms to whom this raw material is essential.
With the cessation of hostilities these firms will be anxious to revert to their original trades, and accordingly will be in the field bidding for the oil of which they -will be in sore need to the possible detriment of the motor industry. Furthermore, the gas companies, not being called upon to furnish the constituents for high explosives any longer, will be able to turn their efforts to the wider utilization of coal-gas for road -vehicle purposes. We have been told by more than one company that they intend to "go all out" over this movement at the first opportunity, and that they intend to wage the comm&cial battle for fuel pupremacy with all the vigour and enterprise with which they sought to maintain the pre-eminence of gas for light, heat and power before the war. The moment the chemists retained by the gas companies are enabled to ease up their researches in the interests of war they will turn to its application to motor haulage. Greater dependence will probably have to be placed upon gas as the source of eneigy during the inevitable hiatas betweea war and neace. Wanted—the Solution of Technical Problems.
The use of coal-gas as a motor fuel has precipitated its crop of technical posers. The issue has not yet received the serious consideration which it demands. But the problems will have to be solved sooner or later, and the more promptly they are unravelled the more advantageous will it be for the gas-fuel situation as a whole. In these circumstances, now that development is temporarily arrested.
it would seem-as if the moment were opportune for their subjugation. We refer to such questions as the determination of valve diameters, efficient compression, ignition moment, mixture of gas and air, and other little .points, any one of which may seem insignificant in itself,, but which in the aggregate affect the efficiency of the fuel and economical operation of .a modern: vehicle to a, material degree.
The fact that gas is relatively cheap and abundant tends to obscure the importance of the foregoing issues, but that they are of distinct significance will be borne out by every manufacturer of the stationary as engine_ • The, introduction of producer and blast-furnace gases complicated the fuel question in that industry very pronouncedly, and as in that instance they had to be well and truly thrashed out in order to enable the respective makers to secure the appreciation of the users, so will corresponding factors have to be solved in the motor industry, and the solution of such problems is likely to. lead to fax-reaching•developments of which at present there is net the slightest indication. When Otto introduced the gas engine he had no idea that blast-furnace gam/having calorific value of only 100 British thermal units would ever be considered as a possible fuel. Yet in the course of a few yews it became the absorbing topic of the industry and ultithately led to the introduetioi. of single units running up to 1500, 2000 and 3000 h.p. At the moment there is no portent of an equally sensational development in the IIHUtOT carrying industry, but it is impossible to fore-tell what the future may bring forth, more especially as pi; and its numerous all-important applications are virtually in their infancy.