October i8, 1917] 



NATURE 



^Zl 



isation it is necessary to bear in minU that outlets for 

 all the products of carbonisation must be found. The 

 ^as, coke, and shale-oil industries are all of old stand- 

 ing, and each has had to develop outlets for its pro- 

 ducts by patient and continuous elfort. No new carbon- 

 isation scheme can be justified economically if it can 

 only live by poaching on the preserves of the existing 

 industries. Even if an efficient method of low-tem- 

 perature carbonisation is evolved, it will be valueless 

 in the wider sense unless profitable outlets for all the 

 important products can be developed. It is obvious 

 that the Fuel Research Board, which is in official touch 

 with the Admiralty, the Ministry of Munitions, the 

 Board of Trade, and other public departments, is excep- 

 tionally placed for the furtherance of schemes which 

 involve the finding of large outlets for products new 

 and old. It is known, for instance, that the Admiralty 

 attaches great importance to the development of supplies 

 of fuel oil from home sources, so that it may be taken 

 for granted that this requirement alone w'ould absorb 

 all the oil which could be produced by the carbonisation 

 of tens of millions of tons of coal per annum. This 

 fact alone gives an entirely new aspect to the extension 

 of carbonisation in hitherto untried directions, but while 

 it will undoubtedly help on the economic side of the 

 problem, it in no way relieves the pressure on the 

 technical side. In a way, moreover, it accentuates 

 the problem now to be referred to, the profitable dis- 

 posal of the coke or carbonaceous residue left when 

 the volatile products are distilled from the coal. The 

 percentage of coke obtained varies with the quality of 

 the coal and the temperature at which it is carbonised, 

 but it may be taken on the average that each ton of 

 coal carbonised will give about 15 cwt. of coke. Thus 

 to obtain one million tons of fuel oil for the Navy it 

 would be necessary to carbonise twenty million tons of 

 coal, and the coke produced would amount to fifteen 

 million tons. 



The 'disposal of this very large quantity of coke or 

 char at a profitable price must be regarded as the 

 vital question if low-temperature carbonisation is to be 

 established on a sound economic basis. The research 

 scheme must therefore include a very complete inquiry 

 on three main lines : — 



(i) The use and value of this coke for the direct 

 firing of steam boilers. 



{2) Its gasification in producers for the manufacture of 

 low-grade fuel gas and the recovery of its nitrogen 

 as ammonia, 



(3) Its use for industrial and domestic heating either 

 directly, as it comes from the retorts, or after its 

 conversion into briquettes. 



The second of these inquiries will involve the de- 

 velopment of a special form of gas-producer and 

 auxiliary plant if the best results are to be obtained 

 from the coke. It will also involve the development 

 of a svstem of boiler firing in which fuel gas of 

 130 B.T.U. can be burned at least as efficiently as 

 coal, both as regards thermal efficiency and the effec- 

 tive ev^aporation per square foot of heating surface. 



In all that concerns the preparation and use of 

 special forms of fuel there are two distinct stages of 

 development to be passed successfully. In the first 

 stage apparatus and methods have to be evolved and 

 tested until a practical standard of efficiency is reached. 

 In the second stage the consumers of fuel must be 

 induced to study the new apparatus and methods until 

 thev thoroughly understand and in the end adopt them. 

 This second stage will be most readily passe'd if an 

 expert staff trained at a fuel research station is avail- 

 able to undertake the education of those who desire 

 to adopt the new methods and appliances. 



The use of town gas as a fuel for industrial pur- 

 poses has made great strides during the past few years, 



NO. 2503, VOL. 100] 



and a number of experts are to-day engaged on the 

 design and adaptation of furnaces and apparatus for 

 these purposes. The actual practice of gas-heating 

 still lags a long way behind the ideals of economy 

 and efficiency, and there is room for much useful ex- 

 perimental inquiry into principles and methods. 



The use of the lower grades of fuel gas, though 

 successfully carried out in certain directions, is very 

 imperfectly understood in the majority of industries in 

 which gas might be used for heating and power pur- 

 poses. In this direction there is scope for much useful 

 work, both in research and in the education of experts 

 and consumers. 



A single illustration may be given of the complicated 

 inquiries which will have to be conducted before an 

 answer can be given to what seems to be a simple 

 question. 



There is a very general belief among electrical ex- 

 perts that the future of British industry will be greatly 

 affected by the cost at which power in bulk can be 

 supplied in the form of electricity. It has been pro- 

 posed, for instance, that large electrochemical works 

 should be established in this country for the manufac- 

 ture of products which in the past have been manu- 

 factured in parts of the world where cheap water- 

 power is available. In this connection it has been 

 suggested that the cost of producing power from coal 

 in this country would be substantially reduced if 

 instead of burning the coal directly under the steam 

 boilers it were first subjected to carbonisation and 

 gasification processes which, in addition to fuel gas, 

 would yield valuable by-products. Plausible statements 

 have been issued showing the enormous savings or 

 profits which would accrue if schemes of this sort were 

 adopted. Unfortunately, these estimates have gener- 

 allv been made on a very slender foundation of know- 

 ledge and experience. On the other hand, those who, 

 by experience and practice, are best qualified to judge 

 hesitate to prophesy as to what the economic result of 

 a combined carbonisation and power generating scheme 

 would be, but they agree that the interests at stake 

 are so great that the question ought to be authorita- 

 tively answered once for all. But no answer can be 

 accepted which is not founded on the complete working 

 out of the scheme, no important step in the series of 

 operations being omitted or slurred over. This series 

 of operations will start from the mechanical preparation 

 of the coal and its conversion into solid, liquid, and 

 gaseous products by carbonisation. It will end with 

 the delivery of a known weight of high-pressure steam 

 under the conditions most favourable for power pro- 

 duction by turbo-generators. In the proposed scheme 

 of research it will be seen that the investigation of 

 each of the steps involved in the above inquiry is 

 provided for. Three, at least, of these steps involve 

 pioneering work on an industrial scale, and the work 

 may occupy a considerable time. The Board realises 

 that it is possible that the net result of this particular 

 inquiry may be to show that purely as a means of 

 1 cheapening the cost of electric power, the use of 

 carbonisation methods has not much to commend it, 

 but that certain incidental advantages will justify its use 

 in particular cases. 



The Fuel Research Station. 



The scheme of research which has been outlined in 

 this report can be efficiently carried out only in a fuel 

 research station designed and equipped for the pur- 

 pose, in which operations on an industrial scale can be 

 carried out under proper working conditions. 



It is desirable that the station should be within easy 

 reach of London, that there should be ample railway and 

 other facilities for the transport of coal from all parts 

 of the kingdom, that there should be ready means for 



