Fuel Research Institute of South Africa (FRI) Collection

The Fuel Research Institute of South Africa is the outcome of a movement which originated in the immediate post war years. The war period had emphasized the dependence of the modem State on adequate supplies of fuel and focused public attention on the need for conserving these supplies and utilizing them to the best advantage. It began to be more generally realized that the application of science to the fuel problem had resulted in the development of more economical methods of utilizing coal and in the recovery there from of valuable industrial raw materials; that the discovery or development of an internal source of liquid fuel or oil would be of immense advantage to the country; that the industrial and mining development of the Union was dependent on the development of cheap sources of energy; and that the Union's exportable coal resources were a means of bringing capital into the country.