Fuel Wastes: Causes, Effects, Remedies

Abstract

OUR basic causes of fuel wastes are directly or indirectly traceable to an overabundant supply of natural resources. The burning of sawmill refuse and edgings day and night throughout the year, the discarding with the ashes of 25 per cent to 33 per cent of the original coal fired, the throwing away of portions of the oil supply as a drug on the market, the blowing of natural gas into the air as a nuisance in oil production, and the reckless burning in the open gas fields of billions of cubic feet are all well within our present recollection. The worthless edgings of two generations ago now bring from $10 to $15 a cord. The $1 and $1.50 coal of the same period, too cheap at that time to warrant economy in its use, now sells for from $5 to $15 a ton and the annoying gas and useless oil products, now worth millions annually, are so nearly exhausted that great anxiety is felt as to the possibility of substitutes to meet the ever increasing industrial and domestic demand. Faulty mining methods and the low cost of coal have, in years past, resulted in a wastage of a ton and a half for every ton placed on the commercial market. Our general procedure has resulted in the flooding and caving of mines from which only the better grades of coal have been taken and the breaking up of the seams, thus making the removal of the coal by future generations not only expensive but so dangerous as to be prohibitive. Improved methods of operation and the increased value of the product have, however, reduced the average wastage to approximately one-half ton for each ton sold. Even if only one-half ton of coal is lost for each ton marketed, this average for a single year would, if piled as ordinarily piled in bins or bunkers, be equivalent to filling Franklin Field with a column five miles high. When natural gas was first used, tremendous quantities were lost through inability to cope with high pressures when the reservoirs were tapped. Vast quantities have been lost through the indifference of those interested in securing petroleum, but not concerned about natural gas, and the gas from the wells has been purged in order to get the oil. As great as have been the losses from these two s urces, the really appalling loss has resulted from burning wells. Hundreds of millions of cubic feet have thus been destroyed daily. For twenty years one well blew forth wasted gas, the aggregate value of which was $3,000,000. As late as 1913, in the Oklahoma field alone, the yearly waste amounted to 100,000,000,000 cubic feet, and not many years ago, Dr. I. C. White, in speaking of the conditions in West Virginia, said: