BURNING COAL DUST

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 25, 24 October 1921, Page 7

BURNING COAL DUST

Owing to the high cost of coal, great attention is being given engineers to tho burning of coal in the form of dust. This process involves, of course, the thorough pulverising of the coal, and its success depends largely upon the efficiency and economy of the machinery for drying the coal and reducing it to an extremely fine powder. In order to meet this problem a British inventor has devised a very compact plant on novel lines for pulverising coal. This machine consists of a cast-iron, casing, inside which a steel disc rotates at a very high speed. On both sides of this diso are mounted four concentric rings of projecting steel studs. Fixed in the casing are smaller rings of stuclr which intermesb with those on the disc. Tiie coal is fed into tho machine in tho form of small lumps, and when it impinges on the disc it is thrown outwards away from the shafts, and between the fixed and revolving rings of studs. Any desired amount of fineness can "be produced by this machine, which also dries the coal through the action of a fan which draws air into the casing. Tho inventor of this machine has also discovered that by mixing the coal dust with a little oil it is possible to get a remarkable degree of heat out of very inferior fuels.