From Natural Gas to Motor Tyres The U.S.A. Consumes This
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Gas Each Year in Quantities Equivalent in Fuel Value to a Hundred Million Tons of Coal. It is the Basis of a Wide Range of Valuable Products, such as High Octane Fuel, Acetylene, Plastics and Solvents
By Major W. H. Goddard, M.Inst.Pet.
TO the average layman ,it would probably be difficult to visualize any relation between " natural gas " and motor tyres; indeed, he May not even know what natural gas is. In the U.S.A. this hydrocarbon is consumed at the rate of over 2.6 trillion cubic ft. per year, and is equivalent in fuel value to 100,000,000 tons of coal or over 500,000,000 barrels of fuel oil. , This gas is formed in, the same way as petroleum, in the bowels of the earth, usually many thousands of feet below the earth's surface, and very often an oil well, before the oil is reached, will emit, under heavy pressure, millions of cubic feet of natural gas. For many years it has been used in the U.S.A. for heating, and for generating steam and electrical power. In the past 'few years research and development have increased tremendously and have opened up an enormous field for the utilization of natural gas. Among the many resultant products may be mentioned the following:— Superior aviation gasolene (petrol), lubricants, synthetic rubber, explosives, acetylene, anstteetics, plant life promoters, plastics, solvents and many other chemical derivatives.
The U.S.A. has proved reserves of natural gas amounting to 85 trillion cubic feet, and another 85 trillion as potential reserves.
We need not go deeply into the very complicated chemical aspect of this. subject, but it may be mentioned that the hydrocarbons present in natural gas are methane, ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes, hexanes, heptanes, etc. The fir four of these are gases, whilst from pentane on they are liquids useful as petrol. The individual hydrocarbons have a variety of uses in a number of industries. For example, propane has a high octane value and is readily available for liquid fuel for fighter, bomber and cargo aeroplanes; it is also useful for refrigerants and solvents in the refining of lubricating oils, What concerns and interests the road motor industry mostly is how natural gas can help us out of the difficulty of procuring rubber, now that 95 per cent, of our rubber production is at present in enemy hands. It will eventually be shown that, although the temporary loss of our rubber is causing us a great 'deal of anxiety and worry, in the end 'it may be found to have been a blessing in disguise, by stimulating the research work and manufacture of synthetic rubber to the point where, after the war, we may have a product superior in many ways to natural rubber and, more interesting still, a product capable of being varied during manufacture, to suit different classes of work, which would be very advantageous as compared with natural rubber.
Deriving Rubber From Natural Gas
One of the materials necessary in the compounding of either natural or synthetic rubber is ciarbon black, which is made from natural gas. Carbon black is an important component in tyres—it greatly improves their tensile strength and wearing qualities. During 1940 about 369 billion cubic ft. of natural gas were converted into carbon black with an average of 1.54 lb. per cubic ft. of gas, or, about 285,000 tons, of which about 85 per cent. was used in tyres.
Natural gas, or products therefrom, under high temperature conditions readily yield acetylene. It is believed that acetylene can be produced at a lower cost from processing natural gas than by the electro-chemical method of producing calcium carbide. The natural gas industry has enormous volumes of propane and other hydrocarbons available to supply the whole need of the United Nations for acetylene and its derivatives. There are several types of synthetic rubber, amongst
which are the following:—Buna-S, Butyl, Neoprene and Thiokol. The synthetic-rubber programme in the U.S.A. (planned in, September, 1942) calls for 886,1}00 tons, which may be increased to 1,106,000 tons on the recommendation of the Baruch Committee. The greater part of this huge production will come from butane, largely derived from natural gas. More than 100,000 barrels a day of normal butane are available from this source. If this were used for making butadiene, it would satisfy the entire butadiene requirements in the present synthetic rubber programme. Hence it can be seen that the natural-gas industry has more than enough of the hydrocarbons which can be converted, into raw materials to supply the entire synthetic rubber programme. Neoprene rubber is made from acetylene treated with hydrochloric acid. This type will be.produced in the U.S.A. at the rate of 9,000 tons per year. The huge sum of tiOa million dollars is being expended on the plants to produce the 886,000 tons in the U.S.A. programme.
Superiority of. Some Synthetic Rubber
Synthetic rubber is superior to natural rubber in resist ance to petrol, oil and chemicals. It is more stable tolight andto air. Side-wall tyre strength is greater, meaning
increased safety and better road grip. The last-mentioned property has been thoroughly tested out on wet and muddy roads. Tests onhills proved reduced side-slip and there is greater safety on curves. It is expected to be able to reach a life of 100,000 miles foi a set of tyres, i.e, the tyres may well outlive the motor vehicle. This is indeed encouraging news for the road motor industry, • The price of natural rubber over a period of years has varied between 3.5 cent. and $1 per pound. Synthetic rubber, mass-produced, will cost less than 15 cents per pound (about 9d.). One may also be certain that, good as synthetic rubber is to day, it will be far surpassed by that yet to come. The properties of the rubber desired will be under close chemical control, based on the high purity of the components started with, catalyst, and precise conditions to yield the finished product. Producers of natural rubber depend on the life cycle of the rubber tree, climatic and soil conditions, whilst the chemically produced rubber will have the exact properties for which its structure and use were designed. ,Natural rubber contains a number of unknown components, whereas synthetic rubber has one, two or three constituents of known characteristics.
Looking forward, therefore, to the post-war period, we, have the great satisfaction, of knowing that the raw materials are available in plenty for our rubber requirements,
also that we shall have improved quality with the great advantage that the chemical specification can be designed to produce exactly what we require for any particular use or application. Also that, by mass production, -the price can be kept reasonably low. In any case, if we are enabled to run 100,000 miles on a set of tyres no one will complain, even if the price be a little above the normal. 'This article does not enter into economics, but it will be clearly evident from all the above that those countries which do not produce natural gas may be largely dependent for their raw material for the manufacture of synthetic rubber on those which do, and thus there may be eventually a competition between synthetic and natural rubber. So far as plastics are concerned, their eventual importance cannot be over-emphasized. At present most of the
components necessary for the manufacture of plastics of all typti can be made from natural gas. It is quite certain tharplastics will be largely employed in the post-war period for the manufacture of motor vehicles. .
Natural gas contains about 80 per cent. of methane, which can be converted into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by high temperatures in the presence of steam. In Germany, the Fischer Tropsch process has been developed to produce oil from carbon monoxide and hydrogen at the rate of 15 million barrels per year.
An enormous amount of research is going forward in a study of natural gas and petrol, to enhance their importance in the war effort in connection with the production of solvents, plastics, high explosives, acetylene, synthetic rubber, lubricating oils and aviation spirit—all of which, with the sole exception of the explosives, will undoubtedly be to the great advantage, in one way or another, of the road motor industry. Almost any synthetic desired can be produced at a price. The hydrocarbons are all potentially available to be converted into the manifold products that man requires in a modern world. Thus, it would be appropriate to say " the world runs on hydrocarbons."
The basis of this article is an address by Dr. Gustav Egloff to the American Institute of Chemists. Certain important data and general information have been supplied by the Institute of Petroleum, to which the author expresses his thanks.
[Some authorities believe that what the U.S.A. can do with natural gas we could do just as easily and cheaply with coal.—En.]