CFM wins award

Press, 13 February 1982, Page 19

CFM wins award

Canterbury Frozen Meat Company. Ltd,, was the Ainner of the 1981 Mobil Conservation and Utilisation Award. The Minister of Energy (Mr Birch) presented :he award in. Wellington on Wednesday.

CFM was saving $602,000 a year in fuel costs after having modified its hot water systems and rendering plant, and taken on a full-time energy engineer. Mr Birch said.

Research had shown that present energy usage could be cut by 18 per cent by industries.’ without introducing new technology or management changes. More comprehensive programmes would save up to 30 per cent. Listing companies that had made significant energy savings. Mr Birch said General Motors had installed a computer to save energy costs of $43,000; the Whangarei City Corporation had produced more than $27,000 worth of electricity by using methane from its sewage and waste water plant to power generators: Healing Industries spent $65,000 on treating formerly wasted material, and almost recouped its costs in one year with savings of more than $58,000 (the company’s new device could treat waste from other users and save an extra $90,000 a year): Child Freighters used efficient planning to achieve cost savings by choosing new trucks for their fuel efficiency, fitting fan clutches to vehicles, increasing tyre pressures, and converting vehicles to run on LPG: Pacific Leathers had achieved higher production figures while proportionately decreasing its fuel and power consumption, by getting a high level of cooperation from staff. Mr Birch said that the transport sector consumed 70 per cent of oil used in New Zealand, and that up to 300,000 high mileage vehicles in the North Island could and should immediately convert to CNG to substantially reduce fuel costs. In the South Island, high mileage vehicles should convert to LPG as it became available.