To Test N.Z. Sawdust For Fuel Purposes

Northern Advocate, 6 September 1947, Page 6

To Test N.Z. Sawdust For Fuel Purposes

(Special.) WELLINGTON, This Day

The State Forest Service is to investigate the use of sawdust as an alternative industrial and domestic fuel. Equipment to test the potentialities of New Zealand sawdust for cooking and heating is on the way to the Dominion, and although this type of fuel is not new or experimental, as it has been used in the United States and Canada for many years, tests have to be carried out to determine whether local sawdust will burn satisfactorily.

In a recent booklet on overseas timber production and wood-using industries, the assistant-director of the State Forest Seryice (Mr J. Dolamore) points out that in the South Auckland district wood fuel capable of replacing many hundreds of tons of coal is being burned to waste or piled into huge heaps, which constitute a permanent fire hazard.

With more saw mills envisaged, the amount of waste would increase, and investigation for using this material was warranted. It was hoped that some small industrial boilers in Rotorua would find use for this fuel. Pellet or sawdust fuel was much easier and cleaner to handle in dry domestic storage than coal or rough firewood. It could be fed mechanically from hoppers into furnaces.