The Use of Wood as Fuel in Industry. (Le Genie Civil, December II, I92O.)--In March, 192o , the French minister of Public Works appointed a commission to study the utilization of fuel to the best advantage--a pressing necessity in a country whose coal mines had been so largely rendered unproductve by the German invaders. This wide field was divided among three sub-committees to which were allotted respectively the following subjects of consideration: The reduction of the use of coal by steam engines; the economizing of fuel in metallurgy and in industries on a large scale; and last, inventions and special processes (pulverization and gasefication of coal, etc.). The Ministry of Public Works is to publish from time to time the important findings of the commission. Thus from the second of the above named subcommittees comes the report o11 wood, prepared by M. Cornu-Thenard.
It is, to say the least, difficult to get sufficient supplies of fuel from countries outside of France and all such importation helps to make the balance of trade against that country still worse.
It is, therefore, wise to try to use the available wood found in the .country and its colonies. There are in France about IO,OOO,OOO hectares of forest (I hectare equals 2.47 acres), and the colonies possess ten times as great an area of woodland. Before the war France produced annually 35,000,000 steres (I stere equals 35.3 cu. ft.; 3.6 steres equal I cord) of firewood. Not so much can now be got from the forests, but this loss would be about made up if the wood derived from hedges and from trees along canals and roads be counted in. Owing to the high cost of fuel the wood crop is better looked after than formerly. From 3 to 5 steres of wood will give as many calories as a ton of coal, and the wood is cheaper than the equivalent coal in the locality where it is cut.
The heating power of wood is a function of its moisture content and methods of drying it are discussed. The ashes of a ton of wood give more than 7 pounds of alkaline carbonate, available for fertilizer. There are numerous drawbacks to the employment of wood, such as greater cost of handling, greater storage space needed, greater fire risk, and higher relative cost of shipment. For these reasons it is chiefly in well-wooded regions alone that wood can be expected to replace coal. It is not, therefore, surpris.ing to read that in Alsace wood is used to fire boilers and that in Franche-Comt6 it has been used in the Martin steel works. The Commission recommends that managers of industrial plants consider carefully the claims of wood and. further, that in the rationing of fuel to the various parts of France the supply of available wood be considered.
G. F. S.