REPORT TO BE MADE ON ADDED NITROGEN

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31760, 17 August 1968, Page 8

REPORT TO BE MADE ON ADDED NITROGEN

Proposals for a nitrogenous fertiliser industry in New Zealand were discussed this week at the first meeting of a technical sub-committee of the nitrogenous fertiliser committee of the Canterbury Progress League. To obtain the most up-to-date information about the likely role of nitrogenous fertiliser in farming particularly in Canterbury, the sub-com-mittee decided to ask Professor T. W. Walker and Mr A F. R. Adams, of Lincoln College, and Dr K. F. O’Connor, of the Lincoln sub-station of the Grasslands Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, for a report. A survey will also be made of users of nitrogen. Mr C. G. Martin, a consulting chemical engineer, who is

a member of the league’s nitrogenous fertiliser committee, gave details of the proposed plant, using electricity for the production of hydrogen, like one in Peru.

The meeting was told that the output of this plant would be about four times present consumption of nitrogenous fertiliser in New Zealand, so that it was expected that demand would soon reach this level.

Assuming that cheap electricity would be available for the plant, it was suggested to the meeting that it would be possible to manufacture nitrogenous fertiliser in New Zealand more cheaply than it would be possible to import it in the foreseeable future.

The league committee that has been investigating the prospects of such an industry is convinced of the importance of nitrogenous fertiliser being available cheaply and it therefore regards a supply of cheap power as an integral part of the scheme.

The fields superintendent of the Department of Agriculture in Christchurch Mr A R. Dingwall, said this week that the department was undertaking an investigation to determine on a broad scale the potential use of nitrogen in agriculture in New Zealand, and it would also be doing a more intensive investigation in the Darfield area in Canterbury.