MORE GAS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 17, 20 July 1921, Page 4

MORE GAS

LARGE EXTENSIONS PLANNED

NEW SYSTEM AT MERAMAR WOEKS.

Since the war the Wellington Gaa Company has had more than its shave of difficulties in supplying- the public with what the public wants—more gas. The. necessity for enlarging the gasworks at Miramar to cope with the demands of an increased- population, and to maintain a constant and even pressure of supply, has long been manifest, and at the earliest opportunity the extensions to the gas producing 1 plant will be made. Plans and specifications have, already been drawn up for the installa-. Won of a new system _of continuous carbonisation of the coal on the GloverWest principle. The existing plant is of' thY intermittent type, and considerable improvement is anticipated ,from the new system. On the Glover-West system,* which is widely used all over the world, the coal is fed continuously by gravity into long vertical retorts, and passes out automatically at the, bottom as coke. Heating is in a series of horizontal combustion chambers surrounding the group of eight retorts, and the fuel gas is furnished from a producer which utilises a small portion of the coka left from the carbonisation of the coal. The hot coke dropping into a, chambey at the base of the retorts serves as a regenerator to heat the air for the producer.. Every, possible economy is effected in the conservation of heat. The retorts. themselves are over 20 feet in height, and open slightly in their, ex-. tent from top; to bottom. The. dimensions at the fop are 24in by 12in, and -at the bottom 30in by 18in. The heut-. ing. chambers, begin about .15 feet from the top, and - are continued down\yards to within 3 feet of the bottom. The hot gases pass completely round, the retorts in each of the sections, and return, into one common" waste gas-cham-ber. The heated gas ascends upwards and circulates round the top of the retort on its way to- the chimney." The. heat in any particular section can be varied' at will to suit the conditions and class of coal.. '

There will he 48 retorts in all, arranged in six settings of. eight retorts each in units of, four retorts. The coat is brought to the plant in the largo hopper wajrgons, specially constructed for the purpose, and emptied into a chute from which it is conveyed automatically to a coal breaker. The broken ctoal is lifted in an eJectrically driven bucket conveyer to overhead; bunkers placed over the, mouths of the rotorts. Into these it is fed by a rotary, coal valve of special design through individual hoppers attached to the mouthpiece of each retort. Through the retorts it moves in a continuous flow until it is ejected as cok« at the bottom. ■ ','■•..

Great economies, are claimed for this system of gasifying coal. The gaa produced pcr 1 ton of coal'exceeds that produced by the usual type of retort, and there ' are fewer impurities. The fuel consumption is low, being about 1-2 per cent, of the coal carbonised. The yield of tar, sulphate of ammonia, and othev by-pTodiicts is > increased, and . the. labour conditions are said to be much improved through the absence of dust, flame, steam, or smoke. The coke is also harder and more compact thun, that made in the ordinary way. ' -It is estimated that. the' new plant at Miramar will be. capable of producing 1,800,000 cubic ' feet of gas > per day, and thus equal the capacity of the present plant.