2643.     ---------------.  [PETROLEUM PROCESSING.]  Shall Government Permanently Engage in Liquid Fuels Research?  Vol. 2, 1947, p. 160.

        This editorial criticizes the Bureau of Mines for attempting to extend the synthetic liquid fuels program beyond its originally specified term of 5 yr.  Government funds should not be spent on research that duplicates that being carried on by the oil companies, and that the latter are better equipped to do than the Bureau.  Government research in connection with the development of liquid fuels should be confined to the assay and analysis of the low-grade coal deposits and the oil-shale beds for their potential value as source material for synthetic fuels when needed some time in the distant future.  The use of either of these raw materials in the commercial production of substitute fuels will call for excavating, conveying, and handling solid materials, and, in the case of shale, disposal of solid wastes, on a huge scale.  Studies of methods to be applied here and the economics involved are beyond the scope of research and development work of any individual oil company.  At present such work is only a small part of the Bureau of Mines program, but it could be expanded and emphasized.  It would correlate but not duplicate the studies of actual processing techniques, which some of the oil companies have been engaged in for several years.