Abstract
THE formal opening on October 15 by Mr. Ramsay MacDonald of the coal hydrogenation petrol plant of Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., at Billingham-on-Tees, marks the start of a completely new British industry. Reference to the present position of commercial hydrogenation of coal has already been made in these columns (NATUBE, April 6, 1935, p. 538). The Billingham plant is the first in the world to make petrol on a commercial scale from bituminous coal. It was originally intended to produce 100,000 tons a year of petrol from coal. It was later decided to increase the capacity to 150,000 tons, the extra 50,000 tons to be made either from coal or creosote oil and low-temperature tar. The first section was ready in January, 1935. Creosote oil was used as the starting material, and the first petrol was made in February. The first coal unit was started in June, and the output is expected to reach the designed figure before the end of this year. The normal rate of production is 410 tons or 123,000 gallons of petrol a day. 40,000 tons of petrol have already been made, of which 27,000 tons have been shipped to the oil companies for distribution. The coal consumption is estimated as 4 tons of coal to 1 ton of petrol produced.
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Billingham Hydrogenation Plant. Nature 136, 635 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136635a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136635a0