550 



NATURE 



[July i, 1920 



Fuel Research. 



By Prof, John W. Cobb. 



THE rising- cost of coal will help to focus atten- 

 tion upon all such potential relief work as 

 that of the Fuel Research Board, which has now 

 issued its 1918-19 report over the signature of 

 its director, Sir George Beilby. The report is 

 of a comprehensive character, and gives evidence 

 both of care in preparation and of a desire and 

 competence to grapple in a scientific and effective 

 manner with some of the more important problems 

 with which the country is faced. The Board is 

 not only undertaking experimental work at a 

 station established for the purpose at East Green- 

 wich, and conveniently placed near a works of the 

 South Metropolitan Gas Co., but is also concern- 

 ing itself with inquiries conducted elsewhere into 

 the thermal efficiency of open fires and cooking" 

 rang-es, the economic position of pulverised coal, 

 the cutting", winning, and utilisation of peat, and 

 the sources of raw material for the production of 

 power alcohol. The report also includes a 

 reasoned account of the proceedings of the Board 

 in the matter of the new gas standards which had 

 been wisely referred to it by the Board of Trade 

 and on which it has made recommendations. A 

 survey of the national coal resources from the 

 physical and chemical points of view is promised, 

 this work having- been taken over from the Coal 

 Conservation Committee, which recognised the 

 importance of such a survey, but, being without a 

 staff, did not feel able to carry it out. 



The equipment and lay-out of the experimental 

 station at East Greenwich are described at some 

 length. Stress is laid upon measures taken to 

 allow of striking a correct thermal balance for 

 each piece of plant employed, although it is no 

 doubt recognised that the smallness of each unit 

 would have to be taken into account in translating 

 results into terms of large-scale practice. It is 

 interesting to note that the position of water-gas 

 as a heating agent for such purposes as the 

 firing of the gas-retort installations is now so far 

 established that the Board has felt justified in 

 making blue-water-gas its standard fuel. Recent 

 experience has demonstrated that the traditional 

 restriction in the use of water-gas to operations 

 requiring intense local heat was unnecessary. 



Apparently the first purpose to which the experi- 

 mental plant is to be put is the complete investiga- 

 tion of low-temperature carbonisation, concerning 

 which so many conflicting statements have been put 

 forward. This is a very legitimate inquiry, and the 

 report justifies it (if any justification is needed), 

 by insisting upon the wisdom of probing all 

 possible sources of supply for the fuel oil on which 

 the Navy and mercantile marine are becoming in- 

 creasingly dependent. It is plain that Sir George 

 Beilby approaches this process with some predis- 

 position in its favour. He has himself made pre- 

 liminary experiments upon it, and in an appendix 

 to the report there is reprinted a contribution 

 which he made to the discussion of the subject at 

 NO. 2644, VOL. 105] 



the British Association meeting in 191 3. The 

 report displays a somewhat unfortunate tendency 

 to rule out the carbonisation processes of the gas 

 industry as being unlikely to produce larger quan- 

 tities of fuel oil, because "present movement is all 

 in the direction of obtaining the highest possible 

 proportion of the total thermal units of the coal in 

 the form of gas with a smaller consumption of coal 

 per million thermal units distributed." Such ruling 

 out is not justified, as a later qualifying clause 

 admits. The further technical success of the gas 

 industry would be expected to result in a large 

 replacement of coal as a domestic and industrial 

 fuel by gas, and although the thermal units 

 carried by the gas from a ton of coal would 

 increase, the margin for replacement is so con- 

 siderable that the total amount of coal gasified 

 would increase also. Moreover, it is unwise to 

 assume that such developing processes as the dis- 

 tillation in vertical retorts of a descending stream 

 j of coal in an ascending stream of steam or other 

 1 gas cannot be made a most effective and econo- 

 j mical means of securing the maximum yield of 

 I volatile products, including tar oils if they are 

 I wanted. Most of the favourable "non-destruc- 

 tive " conditions claimed for low-temperature car- 

 j bopisation may quite probably be secured in this 

 j way without the attendant disadvantages of that 

 process as it has so far been described and worked. 

 The whole matter is still sub judice. 



The net commercial result of any carbonisation 

 process is to a great extent dependent upon the 

 relative market values of products, which change 

 I from time to time. From a thermal point of view, 

 I however, the movement towards obtaining a large 

 I proportion of the thermal units of the coal in gas 

 is justified by the high thermal efficiency of gas 

 I in use, combined with the low thermal cost of 

 production which can be made to attach to it. 

 From the point of view of by-products, fuel oil 

 has, no doubt, its importance, but it would be a 

 mistake if sulphate of ammonia were to be de- 

 posed from its pride of place without due con- 

 sideration, and it seems clearly to be established 

 I that low-temperature conditions are very unfavour- 

 I able for the production of ammonia. It may be 

 : that national safety will be held to demand the 

 working of a commercially unremunerative 

 process, but, if so, the decision should be made 

 , with open eyes. 



The results which Sir George Beilby, Prof. 



! Thomas Gray (chief of the laboratories), and their 



j staff are setting out to obtain in connection with 



I the low-temperature carbonisation process will be 



of great interest to many who have been waiting 



for trustworthy data concerning it. The com- 



I mercial success of low-temperature carbonisation 



on an extended scale is bound up with the creation 



of a demand for the soft coke or semi-coke which 



I would be one of its main products. As compared 



I with raw coal, this material, like any other coke, 



