Briquettes a challenge

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 11

Briquettes a challenge

Parliamentary reporter

The challenge of producing a clean-burning (if not smokeless) solid fuel briquette, mainly for domestic fires in Christchurch, has been taken up by the minerals section of the Industrial Processing Division of the D.S.I.R.

The D.S.I.R. has been asked to produce a suitable replacement for coke in Christchurch, once the gasworks has been closed. The binder used in carbonettes is bitumen or pitch and makes up 10 per cent of the carbonette. Research work in the D.S.I.R. is concentrating on using waste paper or Pinus radiata as alternative binders.

Double the amount of waste paper and Pinus radiata is used in place of the bitumen. The cost is only $3O

a tonne compared with about $5OO a tonne for bitumen or pitch. Mixtures of char and waste paper pulp, and coal bonded by waste paper, have been tried and the latter found to be cheaper. Trials of coal and waste paper show reductions of the

smoke emission of the parent coal of at least 75 per cent, according to the D.S.I.R. Tests show that the burn.ing properties of the briquettes suit them for use in both open and enclosed fires. The Minerals Section hoped to have a working prototype by winter, 1983.