Energy research unit for Chch

Press, 11 May 1979, Page 17

Energy research unit for Chch

PA Wellington A research unit which will experiment with energy alternatives to coal, gas and oil, will be set up by a Christchurch company soon. Mason Andersons Engineering, Ltd will add the research unit to its manufacturing plant at Woolston, said the general manager (Mr G. D. Stairmand). It will be known as the company's exotic fuels research division. It will concentrate on examining some of the non-traditional fuel possibilities which inay help save the country’s reserves of indigenous fuel, cut down on fuel imports, and make use of some industrial waste. “Our research unit will conduct tests on a vanetv of energy alternatives and try to perfect the means

of utilising them,” Mr Stairmand said. Several items of equipment will be installed, including a pelletiser and a hogger for reducing raw waste products to useable sizes, and machinery for reducing waste fuel moisture content. Among possible altanative fuels Mason Andersons will be examining are sawdust and sander dust, paper and cardboard. Mr Stairmand said that the new research unit will be working in a few months. The company had perfected a range of boilers capable of running on oil, coal, gas and waste wood. It had also been involved in joint research into fluidised bed burning of bark wastes, and in some experiments with paunch grass removed from the stomaches of cattle after they are slaughtered.