THERMAL STEAM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26636, 5 December 1947, Page 4

THERMAL STEAM

COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES P.A. ROTORUA, Dec. 4. “ You are using thermal steam to heat your buildings, but that is a small affair, and it is the larger view that I have been interested in. The potential uses of thermal energy may play an important part in the future development of this region. The point that leaps to my mind first is the production of electric power. That is the most important service for which it could be harnessed, and almost of equal importance are the many processes involving chemical treatments of which steam is an integral part,” said Mr W. L. Badger, of Michigan, United States, an expert on machine plants for chemical engineering, in an interview. “In future timber companies may want to set up subsidiaries for the production of pulp and other by-pro-ducts, and a cheap and steady source of heat and steam could be of Very great importance," continued Mr Badger. There was no doubt, he said, that almost unique activity- was present. Difficulties would be in the economic running of such units and the procuring of necessary machinery. He was in New Zealand at the invitation of the Government to investigate the possible production of salt, and any preliminary conclusions that he might have drawn must still be in confidence.