POWDERED COAL

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 49, 26 February 1921, Page 9

POWDERED COAL

USE ON RAILWAYS URGED

The use of powdered coal by the. New Zealand railways is urged by Mr. G. M. Thomson, of Dunedin. In a letter to the Prime Minister he states : —"It is nearly two years since I first brought under your notice the advisability of using powderec' coal on the railways of the Dominion. Making all" allow■ances for difficulties in obtaining the iron and steel necessary for the conversion of the existing furnaces and boilers of locomotives, and the mechanics required to effect the changp, it is evident that the chief difficulty which has not been overcome is the vis inertiae of the Railway Department. Besides, when new locomotives were being tendered for,' apparently the advisability of using powdered fuel as a means of raising 'steam was not taken into consideration. Formerly we were faced with the difficulty of getting hard bituminous coal for the railways, a difficulty which is being met at a great cost to the country. Now we are faced with another in that the fuel supplied is of tho poorest quality. All the time we have almost unlimited quantities of excellent fuel in the Dominion, including immense accumulations of slack from the West Coast mines and elsewhere, and yet the Department is making little or no effort to use these.

"Let me recapitulate briefly some of the advantages of this powdered coal: — (1) Almost any kind of coal can be burned, including lignites of poor .quality. But in the case of New Zealand there is no need .to fall back 'on poor coals, while there is so much waste material of fine quality available.' (2) The combustion is cojnplete, and therefore a maximum of heat is obtainable(3) There is no accumulation of ash, cinder or clinker, and consequently no loss of heat from the interference of theso waste products, and no wasting of the fire-bars. (4) There is no risk of fire from locomotives passing through dried-up country. (5) No stokers are required, as the coal dust is fed in automatically. Therefore one man less is needed on each locomotive. (6) The large, expenditure of money now going on for the importation of foreign coal would be avoided.

"There need be no difficulty about obtaining powdered coal. Every cement works uses it, and they have the necessary plant for drying and grinding the fuel. lam not suggesting theoretical considerations. The use of powdered fuel has been adopted successfully and economically in many countries, notably in Brazil. I know there are difficulties in converting from one system to another, but they can be overcome,' and in view of the much more serious-diffi-culties with which the country is faced, a more earnest effort to meet the former should be made."