CARBONISING COAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20249, 8 May 1929, Page 13

CARBONISING COAL.

SCHEME FOR THE WAIKATO.

NEGOTIATIONS IN PROGRESS.

SIZE OF PLANT AND SITE. Negotiations for the adoption, of a coal carbonising process for the output from the Waikato mines are weir under way. The Waikato coal companies, which havo been considering the introduction of the Lurgi distillation process, are not yet in a position to make a definite announcement, as they still have to reach an agreement regarding the size of the plant, its most convenient location and the number of companies to join issue. The initiation of the scheme on some scale or other, however, is considered a foregone conclusion.

In the list few years the carbonisation of coal throughout the world has been the foremost problem before the coal industry. It is now established beyond a doubt that in most cases a considerable advantage is obtained by the treatment of raw coal before burning. Up to the present the Waikato coal companies, which produce approximately 150,000 tons of slack coal a year, have had a good sale for this class of coal, but on account of the completion of the Arapuni hydroelectrical scheme they will lose the sale of something like 80,000 tons of slack every year, this being the annual supply to the Auckland Power Board. For some two or three years the companies have been fully alive to the necessity for finding a new market for this coal and carbonisation by a low-tempera-ture distillation process seemed the only solution. Over 12 months ago the Waikato companies formed themselves into & development board with the view of further investigating various processes for the treatment of their coal. After various testa of bulk samples and inspection by their experts the process which proved the most satisfactory on test and at the same time met with the approval of their experts was a German one known as tho Lurgi process. This process is now operating in lignite coals in Germany, South Africa, Greece, Canada and the United States and there is one plant in England where there is a deposit of lignite coal. The process is considered to be eminently suited to the Waikato coalfield, which is chiefly lignite.