Page 586 - Records of Bahrain (6)_Neat

574 Records of Bahrain

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rupoes and it is surely a question as to whether
the State of Bahrain will benefit materially by
the expenditure or whether, for instance, it would
not be better to put the money into some more use­
ful public service - say an hotel.
31. As regards a Briquetting plant, I have
gone into the details with the Bahrain petroleum
Cowparly to the extent of their knowledge. The
relevant points seem to be that they have sold the
coke dump, with the exception of a reserve for local
needs, to a carbon company in the united States.
The coke is only suitable for domestic fuel and
possibly boiler-firing. This is due to its high
sulphur content which amounts to 6 per cent and makes
it unsuitable for blacksmiths’ work. It is difficult
to move in the raw owing to its brittle nature and a
bag of coke not made into briquettes would arrive at -
say Shiraz - pulverised. Another point for considera­
tion is that for converting the coke into briquettes
a binding material of either asphalt or tar must be
used. Neither of these articles is at present
available in Bahrain, and they would have to be
imported now, though an asphalt plant is to be built
in Bahrain in the near future. It will probably be
ready in about one year's time. As to the plant
itself, a briquetting plant requires special power,
pulverisers, magnets, mixing with the binding material
at high degrees of temperature produced by steam under
pressure. Then, of course, there is the actual press.
No one seems to be able to estimate the cost, but it
would be high and to warrant this expenditure a steady
market is essential. It is clearly not present in the
Gulf.
32. Efforts were made by the Bahrain Petroleum
Company to rectify the brittle quality of the coke.
. Success was achieved with coke straight from the retorts
but they could not succeed with coke from the dump.
33. It may possibly be practicable to use some
form of small hand-press but even for thut it would be
necessary to 'import binding material. The project
does not seem practicable at the present time.

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