CONVERSION TO GAS IN POLAND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700190046-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: June 14, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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STAT
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Z cie Czestocho
Czestochowa, 1 Nov 1953
In Poland, t?= consumer finds the modern chemist's slogan "burn gas to save
coal" rather difficult to understand, because, he reasons, coal is thret times
cheaper than gas. For examp],e, one cubic meter of gas, or about 4,000 kilo-
calories of heat, costs 50 groszy, whereas one half kilogram of coal, producing
the same amount of heat, costs only 15 groszy. Fhe chemist, however, explains
? that only?10 percent of the heat from coal combustion is used by the consumer.
The rest of the heat and other valuable rax snterials escape with the smoke.
Extensive .:onversion to gas in Poland has been provided for by the Six-Year
Plan. The construction of 1,100 kilometers of new long-distance grs lines will
complete the first stage of tt,is conversion. Over 40 cities and settlements not
supplied with gas now will be provided with gas for do.sestic and industrial pur-
poses. Two new gasworks will be built, and 25 inacti?re gas works will be rebuilt.
Furthermore, 36 new compressed-gas stations are being built to supply automobiles
with gas.
In 195, 34 percent of gas produced~ras coke-oven gas; 28 percent, blast-
furnace gas; 24 percent, gas produced in power plants; 8 percent, natural gas;
and 6 percent, municipal (illuminating) gas. Destructive distillation of coal
in coking plants and gasworks was the main source of gas. Blast furnaces in
metallurgical plants were the second largest source.
The problem of conversion to gas in Poland was discussed at a recent scien-
tific and technical meeting held in Gliwice. At this meeting J. Klosinski, Mas-
ter of Engineering, presented an extensive report on the subject.
A cursory description of the operation of a coking plant, or chemical plant
producing coke for metallurgical use, will give an idea of the valuable raw
materials that can be extracted from coal.
Finely crushed, water-moistened black coal is placed in chambers where it
is roasted for several hours in the absence of air, at a temperature of about
1,?000 degrees centigrade. T:,is temperature is obtained by heating the side walls
of the chamber with the coke-oven gas that escapes from the heated coal. To-
day 11,000 kilograms of coal are gasified in one retort in 24 hours. To produce
100,000 cubic meters of gas, 22 man_days are required. In the chambers, the
heated coal clinkers and the ,;:oygy~g~ ~~tter pass through additional equipment
to be purified. Ammonia solution and tar are the first to condense. The gas is
passed through sulfuric acid and the ammonia in the gas combines with the sulfuric
gcid thereby producing artunonium sulfate.
In the naphthalene and benzol washeries, ?valuable components are obtained
from the gas, such as naphthalene (ra~r material for the production of liquid fuels
anc~.dyestuffs) and benzol or light fuel oil. Dyestuffs, drugs, plastics, explo-
s~ves, and saccharin are produced from coal tar.
The Gliwice meeting opened new vistas to Polist, chemistry. One cubic meter
of coke-oven gas contains on an average 6.6 grams cf sulfur. Thus, thousands of
tone of sulfur could tie obtained annually from gas.
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Ethylene (~ gk)~ an important raw material for the synthesis of solvents,
explosives; etc., x111 likewise be obtained from coke-oven gas. In the USSR,
ethylene is used to acceleratie the ripening o? lemons, tomatoes,. and other fruits.
In hie report, Klosinski pointed out the advantages of degasification of
fine-grain fuel by the Lurgi method. In :.._s method, small pallets of .refractory
material are placed in the chamber and heated to 1,000 degrees centigrade to in-
crease the heated surface. This results in BreaiAr productivity par cubic meter
of chamber 'surface. Noncoking 'coal, brown coal, and peat can be gasified by the
Lurgi method. The residual fine coke from this process can be comi:etely gasified,
or it can be used ae a fvel.:~o-fie~~?boilers.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/14 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000700190046-9