Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation

by Mary Huston Gregory

PEAT

Peat is said by geologists to be only "coal in the making," carbon that is in the state of changing from vegetable matter to coal. It is probable that in the course of centuries this would become coal, and in its present state it has many of the properties of coal, though it has not nearly so high a heating value.

In this country we have had such a wealth of fuel resources—coal, wood, oil, and gas—that up to the present time we have done little to develop our peat beds, although in European countries ten million tons are used annually for fuel, as well as large quantities for other purposes. From the earliest times peat has been the principal fuel of the common people of Ireland and some of the countries of northern Europe.

Now, however, people are trying to make the best of many resources not heretofore developed, coal prices are steadily advancing and the two causes combine to turn people's attention to the peat beds of America. One point that is worthy of notice is that peat is found mostly in regions where there is no coal, oil, or natural gas. The development of peat beds in those regions, it will be seen, would give them a great advantage in the matter of cheap fuel.

Large peat beds are found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, New England, New Jersey, Florida, the Dakotas, northern Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, eastern Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia; and near the coast in the gulf states, and a narrow strip along the Pacific coast, from southern California to the Canadian border. They cover an area of about 11,000 square miles and are supposed to contain not less than 14,000,000,000 tons of air-dried peat. At the rate of three dollars per ton, which is a reasonable price in the states having no coal, this peat would have a value of more than $40,000,000,000.

Peat is prepared for use as common fuel in two ways: (1) By cutting it into blocks or bricks, which are air-dried by exposure to sun and wind for a few weeks. This is called "cut peat," is bulky and easily breakable, and can be used only for local consumption. (2) By digging either by hand or machine, and grinding it in a mill. It is put in wet, ground, cut with rapidly turning knives, and passed out of the machine as a thick pulp that is cut into bricks as it comes out. It is then stored several weeks until thoroughly dried. This is called "machine peat," "pressed peat," or "condensed peat."

Peat is being used in many ways. (1) Air-dried peat is used for fuel only. (2) Dry peat without a binder, or mixed with coal dust and tar or pitch is used for the same purpose. (3) Machine peat is used for many purposes, among them making into briquettes, peat charcoal, and peat coke.

It has been found practical to make illuminating gas of peat, but a far more general use is for running gas-engines and producer-gas furnaces. This is a practical use for it, since it will conserve the coal now used for that purpose, furnish satisfactory power without smoke or dirt, provide cheap power in regions that have no coal mines, and lastly may be made to yield valuable by-products: ammonia, acetic acid, paraffin, tar, creosote, and wood-alcohol. If all the peat in the United States could be used in producer-gas engines the ammonia yielded would alone have a value of $36,000,000,000.

Peat is also used for packing material, as a fertilizer, for manufacturing paper, for coarse cloth and mattress filling. By mixing wet machine peat with cement it may be made into blocks for paving and other construction work. The most promising uses are for fuel, as bedding for stock, as a disinfectant, in briquettes for burning lime, brick, and pottery, in which it is finding a large use, and for which it is said to be particularly well fitted; and most satisfactory of all, its use in gas-producer engines. In Florida an immense plant is being built to manufacture electric power, using air-dried peat as fuel, the power to be transmitted to Jacksonville.

Machine peat is supposed to have sixty-five per cent. the value of the same weight of Pocahontas coal, but on account of the lack of waste in peat its real value is higher than would appear from the comparison. From two to two and a half pounds will produce one horse-power per hour in gas-producer engines. By this estimate, we can see that the peat beds of this country, if properly used, may be largely employed, either now or in the future, as a substitute for the vanishing coal.