NITROGEN PRODUCTS

Southland Times, Issue 18833, 28 May 1920, Page 5

NITROGEN PRODUCTS

: AN INTERESTING REPORT. ! The Nitrogen Products Committee pointed in June, 1916, to report on th* various methods for producing nitrogen, | says: ‘‘The pre war .selling price of Chii* I nitrate in the United Kingdom amounted | to about £07.2 per nietrie. ton of nitrate nitj rogen.” Referring to the electric arc pro--1 cess the report goes- on to say: “Under I British conditions with electric energy at i £3.75 t>er kilowatt, year (reckoning a hundred thousand h.p. development and coal at the basic figure of 7s 6d per ton delivered), the total cost at the factory for manufacture of nitrate of lime and sodium nitrate by this process would amount to £58.8 and £60.3 respectively per metric ton of fixed nitrogen packed for the market. When allowance is made for interest on the capital cost of chemical plant, etc., these figures show little or no margin compared with the pre-war market price of combined nitrogen in (he form of Chile nitrate. On the other hand it appears that nitrate of lime can be manufactured under conditions where cheap water power is available at a cost at tlie factory from £37 to £44 per nietrie ton of fixed nitrogen.” In other words this represents the cost of producing nitrate of lime containing 13 per cent, of fixed nitrogen, by means of cheap water power, such as is obtainable at Milford j Bound at £4 IGs 3d to £o 14s 5d per metric I ton. Compare this with the present retail ! price in Wellington of Is per pound for j Chile nitrate, equivalent to about £650 per I metric ton of fixed bitiogen, a prohibitive j price for farming or market gardening pur- | suits. Needless- to say, coal cannot now b« I got in England for 7s Gd per ton, and in all probability the cost of production would now exceed £IOO per ton of fixed nitrogen. The labour conditions in Chile have changed so much during recent years that there is no prospect of any return to pre-war prices in future; lienee oil (he more need for develooing the hydro-electric method where water power can be f;o easily harnessed as is possible in the Western Bounds of the South Island. There is an unlimited demand for nitrogen products; for instance, the Chile exports exceed two million tons per annum, while the Government of that country reaps a harvest of some five or six millions sterling from the export duty alone. If all the suitable water powers now running to waste in the Western Sounds of Otago were harnessed for manufacturing nitrates the dominion exports would be increased by many millions.