Abstract
DR. A. PARKER, director of fuel research, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, speaking on “Oil from Coal in Germany” at the Fuel Luncheon Club on January 23, stated that Germany developed before the War two synthetic processes, hydrogenation and the Fischer - Tropsch process for the production of petroleum from coal, and many large plants were constructed. At the time of maximum production during the early months of 1944, these two processes together provided oil at a rate of nearly four million tons a year. As a by-product from the manufacture of gas and coke from coal, another one million tons were obtained. The quantity obtained from home-produced natural petroleum was only about two million tons. Natural petroleum gave most of the lubricating oil used, but hydrogenation processes provided almost the whole of the high-grade aviation spirit. The synthetic processes were much more costly than natural petroleum, but with Germany's policy of self-sufficiency cost was not of first importance. It has been estimated that with present-day prices of labour, coal and other materials, the cost of obtaining oil from coal in Great Britain by the processes as developed and operated in Germany would be at least two shillings a gallon, as compared with only about sixpence for imported petroleum, excluding import duties. Research should be continued, however, as there are prospects of improving the methods of obtaining oil from coal, and in certain parts of the British Commonwealth there are cheaper supplies of coal than in Great Britain, as well as reserves of brown coal and lignite. Dr. Parker stated that bombing attacks between May and September 1944 caused a reduction in German production of synthetic oil from a rate of nearly four million tons a year to only about 300,000 tons. During the following months, with a reduction in bombing and determined efforts in Germany to repair damage, production again rose to a rate of one million tons a year in November 1944, after which it again fell to 150,000 tons a year at the end of February 1945. It is certain that this systematic destruction of German oil plants was one of the main factors in hastening the defeat of Germany.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Production of Oil from Coal in Germany. Nature 159, 158–159 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159158c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159158c0