BOILER CONVERSION

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 580, 5 February 1929, Page 7

BOILER CONVERSION

AUCKLAND POWER BOARD PLANT

USE OF PULVERISED COAL A suggestion that as the Auckland Electric-Power Board was considering the raising of a new loan, part of which would be devoted to alterations to the boiler plant, it should not definitely decide that the alterations would be in the direction of fuel oil, was made by Mr. S. Irwin Crookes, in a report to the board yesterday. Mr. Crookes recently returned from a world tour. Particulars should also be obtained from the manufacturers in England as to the feasibility of converting the boilers to the use of pulverised coal, at the same time obtaining an estimate of the cost of conversion, which in turn could be compared with the estimated cost of conversion to liquid fuel firing.

It was probable in the near future, stated Mr. Crookes’s report, that lowtemperature carbonisation of coal, or some similar process, might be started in New Zealand, resulting in a considerable quantity of semi-coke, in the form of briquettes, being available. Some technical authorities held that briquettes could be utilised qui .e readily for steam-raising in boilers already supplied with automatic stokers, without any additional expense. In conclusion, Mr. Crookes advocated a careful economic comparison between the possible use of pulverised coal and liquid fuel in the present boilers, and consideration of the use of briquetted semi-coke. This would reduce to a minimum possible expenditure on alterations to the board’s boiler plant. Mr. R. H. Bartley said he had already commenced investigations regarding the use of pulverised coal. He intended to obtain the fullest particulars and to investigate the possibilities of adopting the suggested method of fuelling at the King’s Wharf power station. Some alterations to the boilers would be necessary with the change to water-power. Two difficulties were present—one was the question of storage and the other was the difficulty of economically adapting the different-sized boilers to the use of pulverised coal.