Government Fuel Research in Great Britain

Abstract

IN an address to the Institute of Fuel in Newcastle upon Tyne on December 13, Dr. A. Parker, director of fuel research of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, surveyed the activities of the Fuel Research Board. To-day, this State organization, with a staff of more than 250, includes the central Fuel Research Station, equipped not only for experiments in the laboratory, but also for experiments on a semi-commercial scale and on a full commercial scale. The full-scale units include plants for cleaning, drying and pulverizing coal, for the manufacture of fuel gases, hydrogen and coke, and there are full-size boilers of several kinds. Experimental work has also been undertaken in co-operation with industry. In addition to the Fuel Research Station, there are nine coal survey laboratories in various parts of England, Scotland and Wales which have been undertaking, in collaboration with the Geological Survey, a comprehensive survey of the qualities of the coal resources of Great Britain. This survey is now being put on a quantitative basis in co-operation with the Coal Commission and the Ministry of Fuel and Power. As a result of this survey, we already have much more information about our coal reserves and the coals on the market than there is about the coals in any other country. Referring to achievements of the fuel research organization, Dr. Parker stated that simple equipment has been developed for fitting to large industrial boilers, which not only greatly reduces the quantity of smoke from the boiler chimney but also increases the efficiency of the coal in raising steam, and work on transport producers using coal and coke in place of petrol for road vehicles, begun at the Fuel Research Station before the War, has led to the introduction of the Government Emergency Producer now in use on many road vehicles. Processes for the production of petrol and other oils and chemicals from coal have received considerable attention at the Fuel Research Station, and a great deal of information has been obtained from experimental work on the distillation of coal, hydrogenation of coal and of tar, and on synthetic methods of producing oils and chemicals from gases made from coal and coke.