Waikato Lignite For Patent Fuels

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 306, 17 March 1928, Page 32

Waikato Lignite For Patent Fuels

“COMMERCIAL SUCCESS” EXPERT APPROVES SCHEME (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. Waikato lignites are superior to German brown coals, and the briquetting of the New Zealand product would be a commercial success. Sir Richard Redmayne, M.lnst.C.E., makes this statement in his report on the “Carbonisation and Briquetting of Waikato Lignites,” which has been received by the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research. The investigator, who was director of one of the largest patent fuel works in Britain, describes his tests with Saxony and Waikato coals. Though the New Zealand coal was superior to the German, the price of th e former was 13s 6d a ton, compared with 3s. a ton for the German product. Briquetting tests were carried out at Belgian fuel works. Sir Richard sums up as follows: “Wq may safely reckon on one ton of Waikato coal of the quality and character of that submitted for experimentation in Saxony yielding 12 cwt of semi-coke containing 7| per cent, volatile matter, 10.8 gallons of tar-oil by condensation (which, is equal to a yield of 4.6 per cent, on the coal), 1.69 gallons of light oil, the calorific value of semi-coke being 7,180 calories, or 12,924 British thermal units, which is equal to that of an average bituminous coal from Great Britain.” Assuming that British coal cost £2 4s a ton, the briquetting of Waikato coal could be a commercial success. On the assumption that lignite was delivered at a cost of 13s 6d and pitch at £7 a ton, the cost of treatment would be £2 7s 8d a ton, while £2 4s would be realisable on the sale of briquettes, leaving 3s 8d to be obtained from by-products—tar oil, 18 gallons; light oil, 1.69 gallons. This should produce a satisfactory profit. The commercial operation should be supervised by persons having an intimate knowledge of German workings. The capital expenditure involved, on the supposition that a favourable site was available, would probably amount to from £400,000 to £450,000 for a plant sufficient to deal with 1,200 tons of lignite a day to produce 720 tons of briquettes.