Does any one remember Coalene It was sold as an alternative to petrol in the 50s. It was prduced from coal. I can remember that Kavanaghs garage on Shalesmoor sold it. Wonder why it has never been developed to suit todays needs, bit late now I suppose with most of the pits closed.

http://www.ingenious.org.uk

This site has a photo of a car being filled with Coalene in 1935, plus a write up about COALENE. not considered cost effective but that was back then,

On the back page of a Sheffield directory is the following information,
From every ton of coal.

GAS 8 million heat units.
COKE 10 cwts.
TAR 10 Gallons.
FERTILIZERS 25 LB.
Benzole 2. 1/2 Gallon.

we have plenty of coal why cannot we use this especially with modern methods to convert into usable chemicals etc,the alternative is ever increasing fuel bills and held to ransom by Foreign governments, as our oil and gas run out.we will not be to worried about the environment when freezing to death.:(

Originally posted by hutch
http://www.ingenious.org.uk

This site has a photo of a car being filled with Coalene in 1935, plus a write up about COALENE. not considered cost effective but that was back then,


Interesting site Hutch, nice one:thumbsup:

I remember coalene very well and the garage on Shalesmore. I used to go there in the late 50's and into the early 60's when travelling from my home in Swallownest to my girlfiends on Ben Lane at the top of Wisewood. It was cheaper than petrol at the time. It was produced at Orgreave Coking Works, my fathers friend's job there was to wwalk around checking the pipework for leaks. Don't know why it finished being available but I did hear many years ago that it stopped being available (though still being a by product of their processes at Orgreave) due to "a large sum of money being paid by one of the petrol companies). If I remember rightly, coalene was a very high octane fuel.
The next lower cost one to come on the market of course was JET from CONOCO, which was under 4 shillings a gallon in the early 1960's
POOL petrol dissapeared in the mid to late 1950's also

Best Regards - Grey Eminence - Subang Jaya - Malaysia

I'm a bit too young to remember 1950s petrol brands, but I do remember ICI petrol from the 1960s & 1970s. It was made at their plant on Teeside & was a by-product of the processing of coal. Not only was it cheaper than normal petrol, but gave noticeably better mpg. I believe the plant closed sometime in the 1980s.