New Ideas Voiced at Home-fuel Discussion
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THAT certain non-coking coal, which I was very cheap and plentiful, could be used for gas producers with better results than anthracite, had been proved beyond doubt, said Mr. R. D. Hardy, in the course of the discussion following Dr. C. M. Walters's paper, " Alternative Motor Fuels," read recently before the Royal Society of Arts and reported briefly in our issue dated March 2.
It was simply a question of process, he added; after proper carbonization there was no tar in it. Reactivity was infinitely better than anthracite and quantities were unlimited.
According to Mr. John Roberts, there was tar more charcoal available in this country than was realized. Many cannel coals .gave a charcoal residue which could hardly be distinguished from wood charcoal except by weight. He thought more attention should be paid to cannel coals for use as producer fuels.
A notable contribution to the discussion came from Mr. %V. Hamilton Martin, who described a wire-wound welded mild-steel gas bottle developed by a British company. It was as light as those now made in France. The weight of a:cylinder measuring 8 ft. by 10 ins. Was only 245 lb. It had a capacity of 700 cubic ft. of gas at 3,000 lb. per sq. in. and the collapsing pressure was 7,500 lb. per sq. in.
Such containers were made by welding together half shells (like the pods of beans) and then winding on a layer of multi-start high-tensile-steel wire. They were more suitable for mass production than the heavier and more costly alloy-steel drawn containers.
The discussion was opened by Mr. E. V. Evans, who, after paying a tribute to Dr. Walters's work, took him to task on one small technical point. Hydrogen sulphide and " other sulphur compounds " had been described by Dr. Walters as injurious to the containers. He held the view that the organic sulphur compounds in town gas were not harmful to ferrous metals. He agreed, however, about the damaging chemical' effects of hydrogen sulphide. On the subject of methane, Captain NV, H. Cadman criticized the lecturer's statement that a natural source of this gas was in the workings of shale mines and pits, There was little available from this source in Scotland. Amounts up to 14,000 cubic ft. per ton of shale were made. The calorific value was 250 B.Th.U. per cubic ft. This quantity was inadequate for incidental heating processes.
Big Supplies Available
Many millions of cubic ft. per day could be made available from the oil wells of Midlothian, Yorkshire,. Lancashire and Nottinghamshire. It was, however, for the most part under several hundreds of lb. per sq. in. pressure which avoided having to pump the oil to the surface. Therefore there was no intention of disposing of it Promising experiments were referred to by Mr. D. T. Davies, of the Fuel Research Station, which pointed to a solution of. the problem of producergas fuel supply in quantity. Suitable fuel had been produced in ordinary high-temperature carbonization and all that remained to be done, apparently, was to put the process on a commercial basis.
Mr. S. M. Scott said that his company, Cadbury Bros., Ltd., had experi enced marked satisfaction from a van operated on compressed gas and was hoping to put on . the road shortly another five vehicles, similarly equipped. It had also a 10-ton tractor using producer gas. This did its job successfully, but he found that in order to keep to a time schedule it paid to enrich the mixture with a little petrol when necessary. He had knowledge of a vehiele operating with no petrol whatever, and it was giving " some rather wonderful results."
An electric vehicle which John Walker and Sons, Ltd., had had in service for 17 years, remarked Sir Alexander Walker, was still going strong. It had not even had its batteries repaired. He was convinced that electricity was the future power for urban transport.
Had there been 10 years ago the same concentration on producer gas by scientists and the Government, as there was now, he commented, we should not have been in the trouble we were in to-day. Transport must go on and jt. was quicker to make town and producer-gas equipment than to build new boats to import liquid fuel.
A communication from Professor Fritz Frank related to the availability of liquefied methane for motor fuel in Germany. It was obtained, he said, with ethylene, ethane and small quantities of acetylene. These other gases were advantageous because they ignited more easily than methane. One difficulty in using it for vehicles was the need for a vessel, between bottles and engine, in which the liquid was transformed into gas.