The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-08-07
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. G.
THE GASOLINE SHORTAGE.

attention is being given to the serious
ness of the gasoline shortage, and the
bureau of mines is becoming more
optimistic about the possibility of pro-
ducing the ten million or more gallons
of gasoline used every day in the
motor cars of the United States n
So rapid has been the increase in
the numbers of motor-driven vehicles
in this country that, despite the stu7
pendous production of gasoline, the
consumption has surpassed it. The
increase in the output Of oil is by no
means keeping pace with the increase
in the machines which use its most re-
fined product gasoline and the ques-
ton is anxiously asked where this
tendency will end.
The bureau of mines holds the pros
pect of greatest prominence is the de-
velopment of a process which will re-
duce a greater percentage of the crude
oil to gasoline. Crude oil. it should be
understood. is subjected to a process
of refinement in the production of
gasoline. This treatment is little more
than the application of heat to it,
When the heat is applied the first
part of the crude to be driven off is
the gasoline. After a certain time the
material driven off ceases to - gaso-
line and become kerosene. whicA is a
quite different product. Further down
the scale other products emerge.
Now it happens that the difference
between gasoline and crude oil lies
in the formation of the molecule. If
the molecule in crude oil can be
cracked. additional gasoline can be Sc
cured from the crude. There is a
process now in operation which
actually cracks this molecule. Thru
that process last year Is per cent of
the gasoline of the nation was pro-
cured. There are strong probabilities
of this method being so improved and
perfected that it may lead to the
doubling of the gasoline possibilities
of the crude oil of the nation. If this
hope develops into a fact the gasoline
problem has been solved temporarily.
The possibility of increasing the oil
output of the nation, which is given
second importance by the bureau of
mines, is that of obtaining greater
quantities of the fuel from the ex-
hausted fields. When a given field
has been exhausted by the flow of its
wells, followed by their pumping. until
no more oil is procurable, not more
than 20 per cent of the oil has been
obtained. Eighty per cent still re-
mains in the sands below the ground.
The bureau of mines believes that
greater attention should be paid to the
possibilities of procuring more of that
20 per cent. Great parts of sand re-
main saturated with oil, and if some
method could be devised to extract it
the desired result would be accom-
plfshed. If it could be eoopomically
mined. for instance. it could be retort-
ed and the oil driven from the sand
and recovered.
The possibility of third Importance
in increasing the oil supply lies in the
treatment of the mountains OF shale
rock which are found in Utah, Colo
rado, Wyoming and elsewhere. In ev-
cry ton of this shale rock there are
about 40 gallons of oil. The method
of its extraction is similar-to that of
getting oil out of sand. 1t must be
subjected to heat, thus driving out the
oil and recovering it. In Scotland
there has been in actual operation for
sixty years a plant which successfully
retorts >shale and profitably secures
the oil from it.
Will Try the Scotch System.
Strenuous attempts are being made
to- adopt the Scotch system and i'm
prove upon it for use in this country.
One of the interesting problems Incl
dent to the operation of this process on
a large scala is the disposal of the ash
which is secured when ton of shals
is retorted. There would be about
100 pounds of this ash for every bar
rel of oil which is secured. IN the pro-
curement of enough oil to last our au-
tOmobiles one day then would result a
mountain of ashes to be disposed of.
In Germany during the war the
and airplanes was benzol. Benzol is
a by-product of the coke oven, and is
a powerful propellant. Last year the
benzoI produced in the United States
was about per cent as great as the
gasoline. II all the benzol from all
our coke ovens were recovered it could
not possibly be hoped that this fuel
would go farther than supplying 10
per cent of the demand for fuel for
motor-driven vehicles.
In its precent session congress gave
| evidence of being very much exercised
over the possibilities of developing al
cohol as a substitute for gasoline. This
possibility has been a favorite theory
for decades and much has been made
of it from time to time. Ample proof
/ has been given that alcohol can be
! economically made from waste pota-
/ toes. apples, and such materials that
l are thrown away about canneries and
sugar fact9rieA When the POSSIBLE
ties of this sort of utilization of waste
are measured against the great in
crease in f4otor fuel demand if be-
! comes apparent that little impression
would be made were 'all such waste
utilized.
Making Fuel of, Waste.
It is true. however. that alcohol can
be made from almost any sort of
vegetable matter. Sawdust and other
wood waste from sawmills would
produce much alcohol. 1t Is belieYed
that it would be economically profita-
BILE to establish an alcohol factory as
an adjunct to every sawmills It might
be a better proposition to establish an
alcohol factory in every sawmill COM
munity. and to discharge the sawdust
from each mill into cars that would
| convey IT to the factory.
i Another possibility of alcohol manu-
fracture that is being given prominence
/ at present is that of establishing fac
/ tories in the tropics where jungle
growth is very 1uxuriant, and where
huge quantities of waste material
might be-economically harvested and
sent thru the alcohol mill
The correct theory has long been
advanced that alcohol may be made
| from the leaves OF the autumn woods
but here again the problem resolves
itself into one of economy. Can the
leaves be gathered. brought to the