From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Article from 'THE AUTOCAR' discussing the 'Fuel Question' and the viability of alternative motor fuels like alcohol and benzole.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 32\1\ Scan031 | |
| Date | 8th November 1913 | |
| THE AUTOCAR, November 8th, 1913. The Fuel Question. been enjoined in the columns of the daily press that our hope, like Ireland's, lies in the potato, and we are told to direct our attention to Germany, where the utilisation of industrial alcohol has proceeded further than in any other country. The Autocar has recognised for a considerable time that the only means by which the motorists of this country can secure adequate protection from foreign monopolists is in the direction of the production of alcohol, but a great deal of nonsense has been written about home grown fuels. There is no doubt that alcohol can be produced at a price which would enable it to compete easily with petrol at considerably less than its present price, but this will not be done by manufacturing alcohol from British grown materials. In the same article he proceeds to show that the average price of the raw material (potatoes) in Germany averages more than 1s. per gallon. How does Dr. Ormandy reconcile these statements? Firstly he tells us that we can produce alcohol at ninepence per gallon from home grown material, and then abuses people who say the same, and absolutely contradicts himself. I am sure a man who cannot agree with himself will never agree with me. I have no prejudice against alcohol, as Dr. Ormandy assumes I have. It is without doubt not an easy fuel to deal with. I have endeavoured to point out to automobile engineers some of the difficulties which they have to face in regard to its use. While practically nothing has been done here to push the matter forward, in the United States both the Department of Agriculture and the U.S.A. Bureau of Mines have had very exhaustive tests made by eminent engineers. These tests run into many thousands, and with a considerable number of engines varying in size and construction. These tests I may refer to at a later date. I stated in my address "that if alcohol is produced at a low price means will be found to employ it economically, and the question of both alcohol and the more economical utilisation of our coal wealth are matters of the utmost importance. They are, in fact, national matters. I am of opinion that the British Empire could within itself produce all the fuel it requires." I am glad to say that the Imperial Motor Congress intends to get to work immediately on the subject. Bituminous Coal.—I should have thought that my reference to bituminous coal would have been clear to Dr. Ormandy. There is a bituminous fuel coal and a bituminous distilling coal. There is also a low temperature distillation of bituminous coal such as the bituminous brown coal in Germany, and there are the high temperature distillation coke ovens in which also bituminous fuel coal is used. My remarks apply to bituminous distilling coal in general, not merely to British deposits, and are, therefore, quite correct. Dr. Ormandy ought to know the difference between bituminous distilling and fuel coal, the former being quite a different material from the latter. The resources of bituminous coal of that kind are decidedly almost untouched in Africa, Australia, Austria, Russia, etc. Dr. Ormandy states that the low temperature distillations suffer from "infantile maladies." Perhaps so here but not abroad, for the low temperature distillations of brown coal and bituminous coal are as old and well-known there as is the shale distillation here. Low temperature distillation is well-known, and there is nothing new in the idea itself. Benzole.—Dr. Ormandy draws attention to the inference that because I quoted the remarks of Mr. Shrapnell Smith regarding the probable output of benzole I regard that estimate as a probability. I did not intend to convey this. Mr. Shrapnell Smith, as a member of the Benzole Fuel Committee, no doubt made the assertion on information collected by that committee, but nevertheless the estimate is very optimistic and cannot be accepted without further evidence. I think a careful reader, in view of my subsequent remarks on the production, would not consider that I accepted that estimate. My concluding remarks on benzole production are, "If there is any certainty of the present price of fuel being maintained, it will no doubt encourage the future installation of recovery plants." To what extent it is not possible to say with any definite assurance. Contradicting Statistics.—There is no doubt that it is very difficult to arrive at the exact figures regarding the output of both crude oil and motor fuel. In the figures given no account is taken of the amount of gasoline taken from the natural gas, and the number of companies which extract gasoline from the natural gas is very considerable. Then again there is no doubt that the quality of motor fuel is increased by the addition of the better grade kerosenes. It may also be stated that it is becoming quite a custom to debenzolise the crude oil at the wells. To subject petrol statistics to criticism or study is almost impossible, because of the concealing of the actual produced petrol by the large producers. Liquefaction or Condensation? asks Dr. Ormandy, and he objects to the sentence, "New methods of distilling in operation and natural gas is being liquefied." There is nothing in this sentence adverse to lucidity from an expert point of view. There is in the natural gas treatment a condensation for the gasolines. The second phase is a condensation and liquefaction by means of simultaneously applied pressure and low temperature. The third phase is merely a liquefaction of a part of the permanent gas by means of high compression and low temperature treatment. Such systems are the Bessemer, Blau, and Groeling. Dr. Ormandy refers to cracking plant as a doubtful proposition because only 250,000,000 gallons of solar oil and gas are produced in the United States. It may be added that not only gas and solar oil but any kind of waste oil, also kerosene, can be cracked. Thus the outlook for this kind of treatment is not so gloomy. There are many minor points mentioned by Dr. Ormandy into which it is not necessary to enter. To conclude, whatever may be employed to produce a motor fuel, it should be done in Great Britain or the Colonies. Cracking heavy oils, waste oils, and kerosene, increased production of benzole, low temperature distillation (which, by the way, is a term used to distinguish it from coke ovens) of bituminous distilling or non-coking coal, peat distillation, alcohol, etc., all of them have room to exist if they are intended to supply our country with motor spirit and liquid fuel, the more so since it will take time to establish an alcohol industry. If alcohol can be made to compete in price with other fuels, it is for motor engineers to devise means to use it, and on this point I have no doubt of the ultimate success. On the necessity of a strong body to take up the fuel enquiry, both Dr. Ormandy and myself are fully in accord, and I trust that the matter will no longer be shelved. F.30 | ||