20 



NATURE 



[March 2, 1916 



The defects of peat as a fuel are (i) that it contains 

 and retains a large amount of water; {2) it has, com- 

 pared with other fuels, a low calorific value; and (3) 

 it is extremely bulky, involving a high cost of car- 

 riage. Thus it is that most of the schemes for peat 

 utilisation have been concerned with artificially drying 

 and compressing the material. This can be done 

 readily enough, but the energy consumed In the 

 operation, and the low calorific value of peat, 

 render the commercial success of any such scheme 

 extremely problematical. Other schemes have sought 

 to combine the preparation of a fuel from peat with the 

 extraction of by-products. When one recalls the fact 

 that the by-products of the manufacture of coal gas, 

 once regarded as useless, have come to rival the gas 

 itself in value, this aspect of the f>eat problem appears 

 full of possibilities ; further reference will be made to 

 *his. 



interest to refer to two instances where peat has been 

 used in plant designed to recover the by-products. 



The first of these is the power plant of the Societa 

 per L'Utilisazzione du Combustibili Italiani, at Oren- 

 tano in Italy. This plant, erected by the Power 

 Gas Corporation, Ltd., Stockton-on-Tees, is situ- 

 ated on the edge of a bog a few miles 

 distant from Orentano. The area of the bog 

 is about 1482 acres, of which the company operatmg 

 the recovery power plant owns about 500 acres'. This por- 

 tion of the bog has an average depth of about 5 ft. 

 of good peat fuel. The bog has to be drained by 

 pumping. The peat, excavated by manual labour, is 

 fed into Dolberg peat machines, and these are provided 

 with belt conveyers to transport the peat to the mace- 

 rators. Part of it is air-dried, and part mechanically 

 treated and artificially dried. The peat delivered to the 

 producers with an average moisture content of 33^ per 



Fig. I. — Producer gas plant, utilising peat, at Messrs. Hamilton Robb's factory at ^Porladown. 



A new vista of potentialities for peat has opened up 

 in recent years. Just as the nineteenth century will 

 always be associated with the development of the 

 steam engine, culminating in the steam turbine, so 

 will the twentieth century be able to claim the triumph 

 of the internal-combustion engine. The success of the 

 gas engine has led to investigations which resulted in 

 the many forms of producer gas plant, and there are 

 now many thousands of installations of this method 

 of producing power for mechanical purposes. 



It is a noteworthy and encouraging fact that an 

 installation at Portadown for utilising peat in gas- 

 producer plant has been found to be entirely satis- 

 factory, and to effect a considerable saving over 

 anthracite. This is the more remarkable, as the by- 

 products are not at present utilised. But these by- 

 products are of considerable value, and it will be of 



NO. 2418, VOL. 97] 



cent., has an average nitrogen content of 1-04 per cent. 

 The nitrogen is recovered as ammonium sulphate, and 

 the gas is used to drive two gas engines of 350 metric 

 horse-power each, which drive alternate-current gene- 

 rators — there being a transmission line to Pontedera, 

 ten miles distant. 



The second installation referred to is the ammonia 

 recovery power plant of the German Mond Gas Com- 

 pany, situated on the Schweger Moor, about twenty- 

 five miles from the city of Osnabriick. It is con- 

 structed according to the system of Frank and Caro, 

 and was designed to utilise peat containing upwards of 

 60 per cent, moisture — an important point as lengthen- 

 ing the season during which peat manufacturing 

 operations could be carried on. The gas plant is 

 capable of gasifying and recovering the by-products 

 from 210 tons per day of twenty- four hours of air- 



