2641.     ---------------.  [PETROLEUM PROCESSING.]  Is $30,000,000 More Needed for the Liquid Fuels Program?  Vol. 2, July 1947, p. 560.

                    Editorial criticisms of the Bureau of Mines program.  No fault is found with the purpose back of the research program, which is to secure data on methods of producing liquid fuels synthetically, including processes, equipment, and costs, but rather with the manner in which the program is being carried out.  It is thought that the Bureau has been far too wasteful and extravagant in its expenditures; too much money has gone for permanent-type laboratories, plant, and offices built to last a lifetime instead of for the length of the program.  It also is said that the Bureau attempts to operate on too large a scale; equally reliable cost and operating data for the purpose of the present program could be obtained from laboratory and pilot-plant studies without the expense of installing large demonstration plants.  Furthermore, the Bureau too often entirely ignores the advice of its petroleum-industry advisory committee and does not cooperate in a program that would correlate with the established research programs of the oil companies.  Some method of obtaining closer control and assuring coordination with the needs of industry should be set up.  The solution, perhaps, is an advisory board composed of representatives of industry, the Armed Services, and the Bureau and empowered to actually direct the course of the program.  Commenting in Petroleum Processing (vol. 2, July 1947, p. 558) Eugene Ayres, Gulf Research & Development Co., and a member of the Industry Advisory Committee, says that such criticism comes from misunderstanding of the way in which the work is conducted, and that the program of the Bureau has satisfied the specification as set forth by the Advisory Committee.