WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF LIQUID FUEL?
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Experts Report Ample Fuel Supplies for 100 Years to Come. Diesel Engine Developments. Poor Outlook for Power Alcohol.
• AXTHILST coal and the various problems associated with V V its use formed the subject of the majority of the papers presented to, and discussed at, the World Fuel Conference which has been held "at the Imperial Institute, London, during the past fortnight, a good deal of attention was paid to the question of fuels for road transport vehicles. The Conference, which was organized by the British National Committee ef the World Power Conference, aioused considerable world-wide interest, evidence of which was afforded' by the fact that no fewer than 49 countries were represented and that over 1,500 delegates were present from all parts of the globe, and literally from China to Peru.
Economic Aspects of Fuel Oil.
The most important of the threepapers in Section E, which was devoted to the ECODOMiC Aspects of Fuel Oil, was that presented by Mr. E. H. Davenport on behalf of the Institution of Petroleum Technologists. In this it was pointed out that, although the demand for American petrol for home and export use had increased nine-fold since 1914, this had been so successfully met that motor spirit showed the least increase in price since that time of any of the commodities in everyday use. The author attributed this to three things, viz.: (1) The increase in the production of crude oil, (2) the increasing of the yield of petrol from the crude, and (3) the development of the motor-spirit-fromnatural-gas industry.
Except for the increased efficiency of the refining processes, the price of petrol would ,lnive soared, for the reason that the demand for the other products derived from crude had not increased to the same extent. As a rule, motor spirit had, in any event, to carry a price which would return a much greater proportion of the total receipts than was represented by its proportionate production from the crude oil, this being a natural result of the relations between supply and demand of the various products from crude. The average barrel of crude oil yielded 27 per cent, of petrol, 10 per cent, of kerosene' and 46 per cent, of fuel and gas oils, the remainder consisting of miscellaneous products, the range being so wide that the cost of manufacture could not he proportionately divided into the total price realized.
In the discussion on the paper, Mr. J. Kewley considered that there were other directions than increased output of criule that could be considered in meeting the ever-growing demand for petrol. Engine design eould be further improved with the object of providing more efficient and , economical—as regards' fuelconsumption—power units; more attention could also be paid to the development of engines using heavy oil as fuel. As to the Price of petrol, it would be possible to prevent its price from soaring by widening the market for the other products of crude oil. Already much was. being done in this connection by the increasing use of asphalt for, road construction purposes.
Enough Oil for 100 Years !
Dr. Egloff, an American oil-cracking authority, who proved to be one of the outstanding delegates in the oil section of the Conference, made some statements Which are of such importance as to merit wider publicity than they have so far obtained. • Thesa referred to the various "Dismal Jimmies" who, froth' time to time, endeavoured to convince the world of the early exhaustion of the oil resources of the universe. In his opinion such gloomy forebodings were altogether without foundation. Not only in the South American Republics and other parts of the world were new resources of oil being' discovered, but in West Texas new reserves had lately been found, which wpm to oil experts were of a staggering (diameter. In his opinion, even if the present rate of increase in the number of motor vehicles in the United States was maintained, and K' the number of automobiles in Europe quickly attained the American total—and he saw no reason why, with ronst-nable legislation and taxatien, it should not—there was 513111cleat crude oil in sight to provide for the requirements of the next 100 years.
Sir Robert Waley Cohen, of the Shell group, who preSided over the meeting, also took part in the discussion, B3G
stating that he did pot share Mr. Kewley's optimism as to the greater use of the other products of crude oil bringing about a reduction in the price of petrol.
International Combustion-engine Progress.
The meeting of Section E was immediately followed by that of Section N, over which Sir It. W. Cohen also presided. No fewer than nine papers were down for consideration, these emanating from no less than five different countries. The papers were not separately read, but a résumé of them was given by Mr. 0. Tlaornycroft, who stated that they could be broadly divided into three categories, viz.: (1 and 2) engines using volatile and heavy fuels, and (3) engine design and operation, in the first of these categories was a paper, by himself and Mr. H. R. Ricardo, in which it was pointed out that the principal controlling factor in the power output and efficiency of petrol engines was the ratio of compression that could be employed and that this was limited generally by the incidence of detonation. How far proper engine design affected these problems was shown in three different engines in which, whilst using the same fuel, the limit of compression ratio was respectively 3.7,•5.3 and 6.8. to 1.
The authors also gave results of tests with variablecompression engines of the influence of mixture strength on power output and the tendency to detonate and with the effect of metallic dopes, and finally of the influence ef the volatility of fuel on engine performance, their view on the last named point being that, within limits, it had comparatively little effect, provided that the design and heating of the induction system was appropriated.
Prof. E. Hubbeuick contributed a paper on Ethyl-alcohol, which is now being largely used as a motor fuel in Sweden, in which._ country the existence of an extensive sulphite industry makes the alcohol fuel question one of great importance. Ali a result of the research work which has been carricd out at the Swedish Royal University of Technology, the author considered that the whole of the liquid fuel requirements of Sweden could be met by a consumption of only a small portion of the country's output of timber. Incidentally, the research work had produced a new alcohol denaturant in croton aldehyde, which had the advantage of only being added to the alcohol to the extent of 0.19 per cent, and at the same time having no objectionable effect on the use of the alcohol as a fuel.
Heavy Fuels for Motor Engines.
Prof. Hubbenick also presented a paper on the progress of heavy oil engine design in his country, whilst Prof. Defays did the same as regards Belgium. The latter divided heavy fuel engines into three classes—low, moderate and high speed. Showing a preference for the high-speed type, he cited the Held-Rallye as a case of successful development. The general view underrtmning the various paperg was that if, as appears likely for some time to come, the cost of heavy fuels of the gas-oil type remained well below that of the present price of petrol, the heavy oil engine would offer a distinct advantage in the matter of fuel costs. The principal economic consequences of the use of heavy oil engines for transport and other purposes would be an increase in the proportion of the world supply of available liquid fuels together with a simplification of the refining processes necessary, with a concurrent reduction in cost.
Diesel Engine Problems.
The proceedings of Section N were also noteworthy for 4 number of contributions dealing with Diesel engines which, although not new, are at the present time attracting increasing attention. One of the papers was by the Swiss authority, Prof. A. 13iichi, on "Diesel Engines Fitted. with Exhaust-driven Superchargers," in which he described the results of tests of large engines to which supercharging had been applied, his opinion being that, since the mechanical' losses in engines were virtually unaffected by the addition of the torbine supercharger, the mechanical efficiency increased steadily with increase of load.
Dr. Ing. W. Rilhm, in his paper, gave a description of a number of relatively -small -high-speed Diesel engines developed recently in Germany frr automobile work, including the Maybach air-injection engine, several solid-injection engines, several employing the pre-combustion-chamber principle and the interesting,' Junkers opposed-piston twocycle high-speed engine. The paper illustrated very clearly the tremendous advances which have taken • place recently in the development of high-speed Diesel engines which enabled the author to claim that they give frOm 10 per cent. to 15 per cent. more power, preetenably from the same cylinder size, than ordinary petrol engines.
Mr. Harold Moore, of the Diesel Engine Users Association, dealt with the subject of Fuel Oil for Heavy Oil Engines, and set out the requirements under the following five headings :—
(L) The fuel should be free from foreign matter, and particularly inorganic material.
(2.) It must have a high calorific. value in relation to its price.
(3.) It most he burnt in the cylinder, have a clear exhaust and be free from coking or fouling of :the combustion chambers, in order that engines may be capable of running for long periods without overhaul.. (4.) The ignition temperature, must be sufficiently low to enable the engine to be started from cold.
(5.) That the oil shall not congeal at ordinary low temperatures.
— Expert's Views on Diesel Engines.
The discussion which followed Mr. Thornycroft's résumé of the papers extended over a wide range of subjects. It was opened by Mr. H. R. Ricardo, who stated that he had been impressed with the attention that was being given to light high-speed.heavyoil engines. The great drawbacks were the difficulty of starting from
cold, the obnoxious smell of the exhaust and the " creeping" characterof Diesel engine oil, which, in time, caused a vehicle to reek with fuel. He considered that the use of pre-combustion in Diesel engines to be merely a passing phase of the development stage and could not see how the use of exhaust-driven superchargers could increase the efficiency.
Prof. Burstall, of Birmingham, considered there Was still much research work to be done as to the nature of the combustion in internal-combustion engines; in his opinion engine designers should seek to produce an engine in which combustion was completed in half a stroke.
Major E. G. Beaumont, the retiring president of the Institution of Automobile Engineers, considered that there was still a great waste of both solid and liquid fuel and that, notwithttanding the plentiful supplies of these, efforts should still he continued more efficiently and economically to use them. While he was greatly interested in the developments in Diesel engines that were taking place, there were several constant-volume etigines in use in Germany and Italy successfully working on gas oil as fuel with no serious exhaust odour trouble. One drawback of the Diesel engine was its weight; an endeavour was being made to overcome this by the use of multi-cylinders, but these involved the uSe of oil meters, so that, although carburetters and magnetos might not be necessary, he questioned whether the other additions requisite, coupled with their complicated use, might not leave the Diesel engine on the debit side in comparison with the usual form of internal-combustion engine. Mr. Beaumont announced that the Anglo-American Oil Co., Ltd., Were making some trials of Diesel-engined motor vehicles.
Obnoxious Odours to be Avoided.
Mr. W. A. Tookey expressed the view that heavy-oil engine designers should continue their efforts until they secured perfect combustion and consequently no obnoxious exhaust odours. Dr. Egloff drew attention to the fact that the corrosion of exhaust pipes was being largely avoided in America by using chromium-plated pipes. In the 'United States the market was flooded with anti-knocking additions to petrol most of which on analysis proved to be useless, whilst in one he had tested the effect was actually the opposite of that claimed—that, instead of preventing knocking, it increased the knocking tendency. In his view, the only effective anti-knock dope was tetra-ethyl.
Speaking on behalf of Dr. lug. Rilhm, Herr Max Gercke, of the German M.A.N. Company, agreed that the Diesel engine presented certain difficulties with regar.1 to starting and smelL For the former it was necessary to provide larger electric batteries. They had fitted certain enginel with alcohol burners to warm them up before using the starter gear, but the experience had been that the vehicle drivers would not use them. As tot the smell, he thought that as Diesel-engined sebieles were mostly used on long distance work this was not a serious drawback. However, considerable research work was in hand which would undoubtedly lead to further progress in Diesel engines. The chairman, Sir IL W. Cohen, whilst welcoming the increasing attention which was being devoted to Diesel engines, pointed out tint if in the general demand for oil there was a change over from the lighter to the heavier fractions, the price of the latter would have to be such as to result in a higher proportion of the total receipts of the oil providers.
Producer Gas for Motor Vehicles.
Among the 16 papers on the Utilization of Fuels, dealt with in Section K, was one by M. J. Auclair, of the French Comite National du Petrole, in which he gave an account of the great progress of motor vehicles equipped with producer-gas plants in France during recent years and the changes in the basic design of the producers during the past six years. Thus, in one table he showed that whereas in 1922 80 per cent, of the producers used on motor vehicles employed an ascending or horizontal combustion, as against only 20 per cent. with downward combustion, the position had been nearly reversed, the respective percentages of the two types being now 38 per cent. and 62 per cent. Great simplification had also been achieved by the elimination of steam injection, which was now employed in only about 25 per cent, of the different types of producers in use as against 80 per cent. in 1922.
New Ideas in Gas Purification.
A striking change had also taken place in the method of gas purification. Six years ago this was effected in SO per cent, of the producers by washing the gas in oil or water, with only 20 per cent, using the cloth filtering or simple decantation plans, whereas now the relative percentages were 33 per cent. and 67 per cent. Charcoal had so far proved the most suitable form of fuel; its chief drawbacks were its friability, its tendency to absorb moisture and the difficulty of procuring suitable qualities in all the districts in which the vehicle using it may be called upon to travel. To overcome these drawbacks attention was now being given to the production of a• charcoal patent fuel, or briquettes, which could be made to a standard formula of constituents and eventually be available in all parts of France.
In concluding his paper, the author pointed out that from the economic point of view the possibility of successful utilization of producer-gas plant depended on two factors— the lower loading capacity and the price of the fuel. A Petrol engine, adapted to run on producer-gas fuel, lost more than 30 per cent, of its horse-power efficiency. In order to compensate for this loss there was a tendency to maintain the h.p. capacity of engines by increasing -the diameter of the cylinders. As regards cost of fuel, M. Auclair considered that producer-gas vehicles can only compare equally with automobiles using petrol when the price of the fuel is within 50 per cent or 60 per cent, of that of motor spirit, and, can only show an economy over petrol running when the solid fuel costs are 40 per cent. of those of the liquid order.
The Line of Development of the Producer-gas Vehicle.
From the technical point of view he considered that the development of producer-gas vehicles would be towards the use of fuels of low ash content and of high reactivity in producers of the reversed combustion type, without injection of steam and with the purification of the gas through cloth, The engine using producer gas, whilst being capable of rendering the same service, would necessarily differ in design from the petrol engine. The load-carrying -capacity of the vehicles would, however, be reduced by 10 Per cent. owing to the weight of the special equipment.
Owing to the many papers that were dealt with at the one sitting and the lengthy discussion that ensued, M. Auclair'e paper only brought comments from one speaker—Capt. J. F. Shaw, of the Fuel Research Section of the Department Of Industrial and Scientific Research. In his opinion, the question of producer-gas vehicles was one that should make a strong appeal to the Dominions, whilst even in this country it might be well that attention should be paid to the use in motor-vehicle gas producers of the coke resulting from low and high-temperature coal carbonization. He added that the Fuel Research Section was devoting attention to the subject, and concluded by expressing the opinion that it would not be many years ere a big proportion of heavy traction vehicles in this country would be running on Producer gas.
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No Future for Power Alcohol.
It is curious that, despite the fact that no fewer than about 150 papers were presented to the Conference, there was not a single one dealing with the use of benzoic as a motor fuel, whilst another disappointment was that of the poor showing givento power alcohol, even what there was being of an extremely pessimistic character. Following on the lessons of the war, an all-important one of which was the precarious position of those countries dependent on imports for their supplies of liquid motor fuel, various Commissions were appointed to inquire into the possibilities of alcohol production in this country from vegetable materials that possess the advantages of being annually renewable, and considerable amounts of public and other money have been spent in endeavouring to demonstrate that in alcohol there was a fuel that could render this country less reliant on imported petroleum spirit.
It was therefore extremely disappointing to find only one paper on the subject and that in this the author, Col. Sir Frederic L. Nathan, was forced to the conclusion, after a consideration of the whale question, that, whilst it may be possible to produce alcohol on a small scale to meet local requirements where conditions are favourable, petroleum would continue to be the main source of liquid fuel for internal-combustion engines. • Although alcohol could be made from a wide variety of vegetable materials and was a satisfactory fuel under suitable conditions of use, up to now it had not been found possible to produce it either in sufficient quantities or at a price comparable with that at which Petrol can economically be sold.
National Safety in War-time : A Novel American Proposal.
Very little discussion took place on the subject, practically the only speaker being Dr. Egloff, who did not regard alcohol as a competitor of petrol, its principal use in the United States being as a solvent medium and also as an anti-freezing addition to the water of motor-vehicle radiators. In order to render safe in times of emergency those countries which had no oil resources of their own he put. forward the novel and striking proposal that each of them should see to it that there was always a stock on hand within its borders of not less than 100 million barrels of oil -end that each country should have its awn cracking plants. The advance in cracking had been so rapid snd comprehensive that it was now possible to obtain a very wide range of products—even benzol, toluol, picric acid and other wars time necessities—from crude oil, so that by keeping the stock of crude oil in hand he suggested there woulh be no fear of any future lack of liquid fuel and explosive supplies in times of emergency.' In the United States, Dr. Egloff stated, there was always a stock on hand of 600 million barrels of oil.
The Composition, Preparation and Classification of Liquid Fuels.
Still another section in which liquid fuels formed the subject of discussion was F., to which no fewer than 12 papers from eight countries were presented. The meeting was presided over by Sir Thomas Holland, Dr. A. B. Dunstan acting as general reporter. The papers showed that the greatest advance during recent years had been in the development of the modern liquid-phase oil-cracking process in America, the difficulties in connection with which had been largely overcome. One paper showed that not only could petrol be obtained from cracked hydrocarbons, but also alcohols, glycols, paint thinner, solvent oils and lubricating oils.
In a paper on the Characteristics of Motor Spirit, by the Austrian Institute of Heat Economy, the authors advocated the setting up of a standard formula based on a combination 'of fractional distillation curves and specific gravity.
In the discussion which followed Dr. Egloff stated that he regarded the development of oil cracking as one of the biggest things of recent years, and although wonderful progress had been made, the cud was not yet in sight. Evidence showed that it would be possible to produce by the process a synthetic raber-like material that would prove entirely suitable for the tyres of motor vehicles. A good deal elf discussion also took place on the quality of liquid fuels 'and its uniformity, as a result of which among the rtsolutions adopted at the final meeting of the Conference was one advocating au international undertaking regarding the methods of defining the characteristics of liquid motor fuels.