COAL VERSUS OIL

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 3

COAL VERSUS OIL

THE MERCHANT MARINE PULVERISING SYSTEM ENGINEERS. AT WOEK In an article in the "Daily Telegraph," .Mr. Archibald Hurd. reviews the situation in regard to the use of pulverised fuel. The steamship Mercer, the first seagoing vessel to be suitably equipped, has just crossed ..the Atlantic, using pulverised fuel instead of either oil or ordinary coal. The economy 'as 'compared with ordinary; • coal waa upwards of'3o'per' gent., Tvtiile-the consumption compared, favourably with oil. The vessel encountered heavy seas during the voyage, -but the plant developed only slight and easily remediable defects: "If pulverised fuel.can be-used instead of .oil," says Mr. Hurd, "at any rate in ordinary cargo ships, which con' stitute about one-half of the tonnage under the British flag, not only will the payment-of several million pounds overseas be avoided, thus" assisting to adjust the trade balance of this country, but an impetus will be given to employment in the coal mines. The effect will be experienced, not necessarily entirely in the districts which produce tie best steam coal, but also in ■those which raise' lower-grade coal, for inferior qualities can be successfully treated. Consequently both ship-own' ers and cpal-owners stand to gain. "The cramped furnace conditions of the Scotch marine boiler made it literally a physical impossibility to burn pulverised coal in the necessary amount, by any known methods.' It was not until the inventive genius and pertinacity of some American engineers ovolved a new idea —or a new application of old ideas—that this difficult problem in combustion was solved. It is a new development in combustion engineering, and that alone, which has brought about a vessel equipped for the burning of pulverised coal. ' APPARATUS DESCRIBED. "The success which has now been achieved has been due to the combined efforts of private engineers, f officials of the Shipping Board, and research workers under the Navy Department at Washington. It has been duo, however, in largest measure to the work of Mr. Ernest Peabody, who devised a burner which has satisfied all demands. *The coal is taken on board tho ship in the usual way. It is then carried up an endless belt elevator and passes through a small crusher, which breaks up, the larger lumps. When this operation has been completed the' coal goes into the ready-bunker.. The next process is pulverisation. There is a mill for this purpose, arid when the coal has been reduced to dust it j goes to the burners at the furnace front. It is, of course, impossible "to give a full description of the equipment without entering into . many engineering technicalities. It must suffice to state that the extrmemly difficult problem of dividing a stream of coal suspended in an air current into smaller streams in order that an equal amount of fuel, may reach each of the furnaces has been solved. ..',-. "Tho installation on board the Mercer having proved a success, 'engineers are about to tackle a further problem. Is it possible to pulverise coal at or near tho pit's mouth, convey it by pipeline to the water's edge, and. thence puuip it on board a ship as though it were oil, with an immense economy of labour and expense? It is believed that this will eventually, be possible. But when this has been done there will remain another obstacle, for coal in the form of a fino powder is very inflammable under certain conditions. The risk of explosion cannot be run. But tho engineer and the chemist are convinced that they can surmount this difficulty. . In the meantime, as the voyage of tho Mercer proves, the use of pulverised fuel on board ship with an immense gain in efficiency and lessening of expense, is no longer a dream. The rivalry between coal- and oil is likely to becomo increasingly keen as the coal engineer triumphs, step by step, over the obstacle's which are still in his path. There is some confidence that he will bo able eventually to offer a successful challenge to oil for" use at least in the tramp ship." '