NEW COAL FUEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 811, 4 November 1929, Page 10

NEW COAL FUEL

SMOKELESS BRIQUETTES FROM SLACK PROCESS EXPERT ARRIVES Assigned to the task of superintending the erection of a Lurgi ■ plant for the low-temperature carbonisation of coal, Mr. D. G. Whitwell, representative of Fuel Industries, Ltd., arrived at Auckland yesterday on the Aorangi. The plant, which carries out a comparatively new process, will he used in the carbonisation of Waikato slack on behalf of a company formed by the Pukemiro, [Taupiri, Renown and Waipa Collieries. Similar plants are at present in operation on the Continent, particularly in Germany and Greece, and in Canada, where a factory is situated not far from Winnipeg. . When the slack coal is carbonised, its 8.T.U., or heating power, is very much increased, all the tar, oil, and pitch having been removed by extraction. The resultant material is then pressed into small briquettes possessing a very high calorific value and being practically smokeless. The company hopes that this fuel will be used largely on the New Zealand Railways and obviate the importation of coal from Newcastle. A nominal capital of £IOO,OOO is backing the venture. The new plant is expected to offset the heavy losses to collieries caused by the discontinuance of orders for slack coal to generate electric power. The opening of the Arapuni scheme lessened considerably the demand for slack, but this coal can now be put through the new treatment.