PULVERISED COAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17437, 8 April 1931, Page 12

PULVERISED COAL

USE IN INDUSTRY Remarkable facts concerning the use of pulverised coal were given by Mr. E. I/. Denny, a visiting English engineer, at a luncheon tendered him in Sydney recently. Mr. Denny was in Australia as' supervising engineer for the coal-pulyer-ising plant of tho, New Zealand Shipping Co.’s steamer Hororata, which had just completed a non-stop run from iNew-castle-on-Tyne to Port Pirie. Onp very interesting plant, said Mr. Denny, was that used by an English oil company for the distillation of oil luel. The company formerly used its own oil, i costing 30s a ton, for firing its furnaces, but was now employing pulverised coal, costing 13s a ton, and the weekly cost of running four stills had been reduced from £l5O to £IOO. In a forge-reheating furnace the cost per ton of steel had been reduced by 60 per cent, since changing from hand-firing .to pulverised coal-firing. The quality of tho product had been improved, although a cheaper i Sie of coal was now being used. He lieen asked how the system would work with Australian coals. The best answer he could give was that a boiler plant now operating in Melbourne, with ah output of 10,000 pounds of steam an hour, had successfully used Victorian, Newcastle and Queensland coals. The Hororata, he said, had run 12,000 miles, from Newcastle-on-Tyne to Port Pirie, this being the longest non-stop run yet complete! by a ship using pulverised coal. In addition to maintaining an increased speed, the boat had shown a saving on coal consumption.