NEW INDUSTRY.
ENTERPRISE AT RIVERTON. USING SOUTHLAND BEECH. According to the "Southland Times" a company incorporated in Invercargill with a capital of £100,000 will shortly start operations at Riverton for the distillation of chemical products from Southland beech. Research work over the past 18 months is said to have produced exceptionally favourable results and the yield of chemicals per ton of wood has been unusually large. The actual products liberated by the process, which is the low temperature carbonisation of beech wood, are the chemical derivatives of methyl alcohol, used for methylated spirits and dyes; methyl acetone, used for duco lacquers and preparations for aeroplane wings and other purposes; acetone, for cordite and other high explosives; a wide range of acetates, such as acetic acid and stockholm tar (which in it« turn yields a highly inflammable spirit); creosote and a wide range of creosote oils and germicides; tannic acid from the bark of the tree from which wool dyes are manufactured; and finally, a form of bitumen is left over which in used in rubber.
The company's raw material will consist of vast deposits of sawdust from the sawmills, and all the waste wood that the millers do not use, such as branches.
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 229, 27 September 1937, Page 4
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203NEW INDUSTRY. Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 229, 27 September 1937, Page 4
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