Course On Techniques Of Firing Boilers

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31762, 20 August 1968, Page 11

Course On Techniques Of Firing Boilers

Throughout the North and South Islands, fuel engineers of the Mines Department and the Coal Research Association gave three-day and four-day courses on techniques of firing coal-fired boilers, said the fuel engineer of the Mines Department in Christchurch (Mr J. J. Seymour).

Mr Seymour was replying to criticism by a Christchurch chemical engineer (Mr J. S. Pollard) about the control of air pollution published in last Thursday’s issue of “The Press.”

The courses on correct techniques, says Mr Seymour, are free of charge. They were on the very subject that Mr Pollard says are neglected. Mr Seymour says that many instances can be quoted of boiler houses that emit smoke —some coal fired and some oil fired.

But the majority upon investigation have been proved time and time again to be overloaded, in some cases by as much as 50 per cent Mr Seymour suggests that industrial management as a whole take a critical look at steam-producing plants. In the last year, 60 persons —boilermen and plant engineers—have attended two courses in Christchurch on the correct techniques of firing coal-fired boilers.

Modern plant, says Mr Seymour, is capable of burning fuel without smoke. The operative word, he says, is “modern,” and then only if it is correctly sized for its duties. Older plants can and have been modified, end many engineers are doing their best within the limits of tile money allocated to them.