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| Image courtesy Brian Murphy, KILDARE DC ELECTRICITY STATION, Cill Dara Historical Society: Kildare Town Heritage Series No. 37 (https://www.facebook.com/kildaretownfootprints/posts/147252716928373) - Accessed 16/10/24 |
Nowadays
we use natural gas in our homes and industry. It comes from natural gas
deposits such as the offshore Corrib gas field off the coast of Mayo
and previously from the Kinsale Head gas field which is now depleted. We
also import gas from the UK and mainland Europe through several gas
interconnectors. Natural gas is pretty much odourless methane, with an
odoriser added for safety reasons.
Coal gas
Before
the advent of natural gas, cities and many towns had their own
gasworks. Coal was roasted to create a gas which could be stored in
large tanks called gasometers and coke and tar remained as by-products.
Tar could be used for road building and coke used as a fuel domestically
or in foundries for smelting iron ore.
The Kildare DC Electricity Station
In
the Kildare station, just like in a gasworks, gas was produced from
coal in a gas plant room. The article doesn't mention how the liquid
fuel was obtained, but presumably the gas that was created from roasted
coal was distilled and condensed to a liquid that could be stored and
used to power the engines. This process known as gasification isn't
limited to coal as a raw product. In fact any biomass can be used that
contains cellulose, such as wood chip. During WW2 when there were fuel
shortages, modified "wood gas cars" and buses ran on such fuels, with an
onboard or towed gasifier generating the fuel gas.
This article about the Kildare DC Station by Brian Murphy was first published in the Kildare Nationalist in 2009.