Abstract
THE National Smoke Abatement Society has issued the fourth war-time issue of its journal Smokeless Air. The Editor justifies this effort by the necessity for keeping in view the ideal of a cleaner atmosphere when the time comes for post-War reconstruction so that such an opportunity shall not be lost for want of forethought. Prominence is given to a recent paper by H. H. Thomas and P. J. Askey describing work at the Liverpool Gas Co. on the production of reactive coke by alkali activation. For some years it has been known that a little sodium carbonate alters the mode of burning of carbon, making it blaze more freely. The quantity of alkali necessary can be replaced to a great extent by lime with a corresponding reduction of cost. The authors record results of a large-scale trial in which coal treated with 1.25 percent lime and 0.5 per cent sodium carbonate was carbonized in normal gas retorts. The coke so produced over a period of seventeen months has been sold to Liverpool consumers for use in the fireplaces in normal use and to the general satisfaction. In ease of combustion the fuel compared favourably with low-temperature coke, with the advantage that it was made in standard gas-making plant at high temperature, without sacrifice of the yield and output of gas—factors of importance in ensuring economical working.
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Smoke Abatement. Nature 146, 329–330 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146329d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146329d0