Porridge power

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33534, 15 May 1974, Page 1

Porridge power

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, May 14. Flemings, the Southland rolled oats company, has beaten the power crisis by using porridge power to provide its own electricity. The company, which manufactures much of the rolled oats eaten in New Zealand as porridge, uses the husks from the oats to fuel a steam-powered generator which provides most of the company’s electricity.

At busy periods, the generator produces surplus power which is fed back into the national grid, helping the country’s stretched power supply. To run its milling and rolling machines, the company needs 140 kilowatts each hour of the working day. Thousands of tons of oats go through the machines for products ranging from porridge to baby foods. About 25 per cent of the oats are discarded as husks, from around the outside of the oat. Several hundred tons of this oil-rich husk is discarded in the milling process each month.

In a system devised by company engineers, the light discarded husks are carried in special pipes to a large hopper in the boiler room. They are then fed in a steady stream into the burner, where the high oil content gives off an extremely intense flame. The boiler not only provides steam for the generator, but also heats the

ovens in which the oats are roasted.

Only occasionally do Flemings have to draw electricity from outside. The factory provides an

average of about 90 per cent of its requirements.

By burning the husks, the company is also solving its waste-disposal problem.