Abstract
THE economical use of coal has been referred to frequently in these columns, but with all the various proposals for its more efficient application for power production the possibilities of effecting marked economies with existing boiler-plants have not been fully, appreciated. In the columns of Engineering (July 12 and 19) Mr. D. Brownlie gives data of the examination of 250 boiler-plants, comprising 1000 boilers and using annually more than two million tons of coal. Seventy-six per cent, of the plants were hand-fired, the average net efficiency being 57.8 per cent.; the remainder^- mechanically fired, show an efficiency of only 61.4 per cent. Only 9.6 per cent, of the plants show a higher efficiency than 70 per cent. Certainly these figures indicate very bad practice, for a net working efficiency of 75 per cent. may well be aimed at Reorganisation of the plants examined to reach this figure would alone entail a saving of 430,000 tons of coal annually,; throughout the country it would possibly lead to a saving of 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 tons. As Mr. Brownlie points Out, “the question of the economical generation of steam will always be a very important part of the greater national scheme of coal economy, even if all the power of the country is generated by gas-engines and the by-products of the distillation of coal.” As a large part of the power will undoubtedly be steam-generated in existing plants for many years to come, the improvement of the efficiency of these plants is urgently called for during the period which must elapse before the general reorganisation of the whole system of power production can be carried out.
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Fuel Economy . Nature 102, 75 (1918). https://doi.org/10.1038/102075a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/102075a0