CHEMICAL
AND
ENGINEERING H A R R I S O N E. H O W E , E d i t o r
PUBLISHED
BY
V O L U M E 20
THE
NEWS AMERICAN MAY
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY
25,1942
N U M B E R 10
Substitute Fuels as a W a r economy GUSTAV EGLOFF A N D P. M. V A N ARSDELL Universal O i l Products Co., Research Laboratories, Chicago, III.
W
ITH the advent of total war throughoat the world, the problem of securing sufficient motor fuel of high quality h a s become vitally important. When the United States entered the war the oil supplies of the Axis group were a severe contrast t o the United Nations, who control more than 90 per cent of the world's petroleum resources. The world's oil consumers present a different aspect since the European continent was the second largest user of petroleum and i t s products before the war began With the exception of R u mania, Poland, a n d Hungary, none of the nations under Axis domination have a petroleum industry sufficient to supply their needs, nor d o they have motor fuel of as high quality as the United Nations. The European volume of the world's 2,250,736,000 barrels {25) of petroleum production in 1941 was less than 3 per cent. Consequently the major portion of the petroleum in those countries was previously imported. The crude oil production of the world during 1941 is shown in Table I. When t h e Axis Powers established domination of t h e European Continent, all oil production, storage, and refinery capacity w a s confiscated for the German military machine. During 1940-41 practically all of the oil-burning motors remaining i n civilian use in Europe were converted to the gas-, coal-, and woodburning type. Progress in building more plants for the manufacture of synthetic motor fuels also continued. T h e quantity of petroleum and substitute fuels produced throughout Axis Europe amounted to a maximum estimated volume of 11,268,000 barrels monthly a n d consisted of gasoline from petroleum, hydrogenated coal and water gas, compressed fuel gases, producer gas from wood, lignite, coal, and coke, and alcohol, benzol, and shale oil. Until Axis control is established in some 1
Presented before the Division of Petroleum Chemistry a t the 103rd Meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, Memphis, Tenn., April 20 to 23. 1942.
large oil-producing country, the need for greater quantities of substitute fuels will be present. The Russian invasion has cost Germany about 21,250,000 barrels of oil and substitutes per month, of which at least 4,250,000 barrels must be used in maintaining communications and industry behind the battle lines. Germany is using oil and its substitutes at approximately double the rate of her production capacity, which is based on the maximum estimated output of the European Continent. An estimate of the year's military operations on all European fronts by the Axis Powers called for over 255,000,000 barrels of fuel, of which Germany, Rumania, Poland, Albania, and other occupied countries produced only 53,501,000 {25) barrels of petroleum and substitute fuels of
Data Published on Selective Service " B E C A U S B of the wide interest in this subject and the need for obtaining trained men for our Production Army, we give below references to information we have published on occupational deferments, including those of men in training. Future developments will be brought to the attention of our readers. Chemical and Engineering News ( N E W S EDITION previous to
1942)
Vol. 18 (1940), pages 890, 1127 Vol. 19 (1941), pages 129, 311, 457, 459, 489, 520, 587, 681, 797, 1164. 1412, 1464 Vol. 20 (1942), pages 110, 157, 472. 579-80 Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol. 33 (1941), pages 1, 135, 283, 561 Vol. 34 (1942), pages 2, 131, 259 649
Table 1.
World Crude Oil Production, 1941 PER 1,000 BARRELS
CENT
1,405,830 41,200 10,003 1,457,033
62.46 1.83 0.44 64.73
222,902 24,442 21,641 21,211 12,846 1,561 304,724
9.90 1.09 0.96 0.94 0.57 0.07 0.01 13.54
242,150 40,563
10.76 1.80
4,438
0.19 0.03
109
3,319 2,474
0.01 0.15 0.11
1,381
0.06
295,651
13.13
78,035 12,650 7,762 6,846 5,871 2.270 113,434
3.47 0.56 0.34 0.30 0.26 0.11 5.04
40,827 13,848 6,735 721
1.81 0.62 0.30 0.03
5,552 1,312 2,659 71,654
0.25 0.06 0.12 3.19
7,659
0.34 0.03 100.00
NORTH AMERICA
United States Mexico Canada CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
Venezuela Colombia Argentina Trinidad Peru Ecuador Bolivia
121
EUROPE
Russia Rumania Germany Old Reich Ostmark Slovakia and Moravia Poland Hungary Italian Empire Albania Italy France
692
46 479
6.02
ASIA
Iran Iraq Burma Bahrein Saudi Arabia British India OCEANIA
Netherlands East Indies Sumatra Borneo Java Molucca British Borneo Brunei Sarawak Japan AFRICA
Egypt OTHER COUNTRIES WORLD TOTAL
581
2,250,736
prisoners was set up by the Yugoslav General Mikhailovitch. According to the dispatch, the system is one Italian soldier or noncommissioned officer for one can of gasoline, one Italian officer up to rank of colonel for four cans of gasoline, one Italian colonel for 5 0 cans of gasoline. These equivalents were considered unreasonable by the Italian Government but were finally accepted, thus allowing the General to fuel the tanks captured at the same time as the soldiers. At the beginning of the war, September 1939, Europe had immense stores of crude oil and refined products, and a relatively large synthetic fuel production. The extent to which substitute fuels have been necessary is shown when acetylene, garbage, artichokes, ammonia, and hydrogen are considered suitable for motor fuels, and in the great increase in the number of gas generator (gasogene) and compressed gas vehicles during the past two years. I t is naturally difficult during wartime censorship and propaganda activities to obtain reliable figures on Axis production and consumption of fuels and fuel substitutes. D a t a are presented in Tables II and III for maximum and minimum amounts reported by different esti-
Above. Below.
Compressed propane-butanes as motor fuels named Ruhrgasol. Compressed methane in steel cylinders under truck floor.
all kinds equivalent to 81,720,630 barrels of fuel, or a total of 135,221,630 barrels. From a fuel production standpoint Axis Europe is short at about the rate of 120,000,000 barrels of oil per year, based on the Russian campaign. From time to time the question arises as to the Axis defeat because of oil shortage. The European Continent is low in oil production, and to maintain a campaign based on the strategy of World War I would have depleted its oil resources. However, with modern blitz warfare the Western European campaign lasted but 45 days from invasion to capitulation. This 45-day war used about 12,500,000 barrels of oil and oil products, and the captured stores in the defeated countries were estimated at about 20,000,000 barrels (13). The remaining European campaigns lasted less than a year—about 284 days of actual fighting until the Russian invasion on June 22, 1941. Up to that date the actual expenditure of oil was less than had been expected, based on previous calculations of strategy. In contrast to the Western European campaign, the Russian campaign has cost about 32,000,000 barrels
of oil in a similar 45-day period with no oil stores or production gained. It has been reported t h a t o i l s t o c k s in Germany were 59,500,000 barrels (57). But it is not clear what the German losses in actual capacity have been from aerial b o m b a r d m e n t over Europe by the R. A. F and the Russian air force. From increasing frequency of bombing raids, the damage to Axis oil production should be r e l a t i v e l y large. A further indication of t h e p r e v a i l i n g E u r o p e a n motor fuel situation is reflected in a news item in the New York Times on April 28, 1942, which points out that a system of gasoline barter for Italian
A C M E PHOTO
O n e of the halls of "the heart of Germany's war fuel industry", says the German censor-passed caption on this picture. The Leuna synthetic oil plants, greatest in G e r many, have been bombed time and again b y the British.
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C H E M I C A L
A N D
E N G I N E E R I N G
N E W S
Table II. Max:mum Estimates Axis Oil and Substitutes Production HYDROGENATION
PRODUCTION
BERGIUS AND
COMPRESSED
FISCHER-TROPSCH
GASES
SHALE O I L S
BENZENE
Barrels
Barrels
1,785,700 (//»
6,375,000 (51) (pit coal tar motor fuel)
Barrels
Barrels Germany
WOOD AND
CRUDE O I L
5,239,000
42,500,000 (5/, OH)
TOTAL
COAL G A S
REFINING
C R U D E O I L AND
ALCOHOL
GENERATORS
CAPACITY
SUBSTITUTES
Barrels
Barrels
Barrels
Barrels
5,355,000 (51)
4,000,000 (.5/)
6,000,000 (35)
24,757,000 (64) (incl. Austria and Czechoslovakia)
72,754,700
600,000 (45) (1939)
1,600,000 (45) (1939) 80,000 (45) (1939) 100,000 (46) (1939)
1,190,000(0*)'
54,558,000 (54)
7,690,000
4,201.000(54)
2,554,000
8,298,000 (54)
3,419,000
80,712,000(.54)
40,563,000 1,500,000
in
Barrels
+ France
479,000
Hungary
2,474,000
Poland
3,319,000
Rumania Baltic States
238,000 (0)
3,498,000 (45)
40.5fi3.000 1,500,000 (IS) (1940)
Norway Denmark Holland Finland Belgium Italy
1,500,000 (gas oil) (45) 85,000 (12)
300,000 (46) (1939) 1,427,000
3,025,500 (37) (1940)
255,000 (47)
340,000 (47) (1939) 50.000 (46)
Lithuania TOTAL
183,000 277,530 42,000 238,000 143,400
8.500 (/*)
53,501,000
2,287,200
49,023,500
Table III.
9,460,000
6,255,000
6,170,000
255,000 (47)
Germany
Barrels 5,239,000 (25)
BERGIUS AND FISCHER-TROPSCH
Barrels 19,125,000(43)
20,628,000 (64)
5,302,500 50,000
8,328,930
193,154,000
135,025,630
Minimum Estimates Axis Oil and Substitutes Production
HYDROGENATION CRI'DE OIL PRODUCTION
183,000 286,030 42,000 238,000 443,400
(64) (12) (69) (17) (26)
COAL G A S
TOTAL C R U D E O I L AND
^
GENERATORS
SUBSTITUTES
°*
Barrels 1,190,000(37)
Barrels 44,213,000
s
