New Britain herald., 1923-01-24
MAKE WASTE WOOD
into BRIQUETTES
Process Is Perfected Alter Years
Of Experimenting

hohlzlns ana pressing u lnto fnei pFl
austies equal IN value almost 10 an
thFaeite, has heeH accomplished IL
saNmills in the Pacific northwest, ae
eaTding % an announcement Of ms
National Lumber Manufacturers asso
citation,
The process, which is said "a have
been perfected after a years expert
mentatiah, Is declared 10 he an epoch
al advance in eliminating waste in
converting standing trees into useful
boards, and will he an important fac
tor in supplying a valuable fuel "a
take the place Of coal IN time OF
shortage.
Robert n, Allen, Of Seattle, seeFe-
faFy ~ the West Coast LumbeFman's
association has heen in Washington
explaining the process ~ officials
Viii Mean Much,
What this will mean IN the lumber
industry and TO others also, can he
ganged by the statement Of lumber
manufacturers that IN the best stand
ing timber, the waste In telling and
milling amounts 10 "a or 70 per cent,
by the time the logs are cut 10 nlanks
and then 70 standard building siZes,
sometimes only about ten per cent Of
the entire tree has been put 10 use.
The resi-stumn. limbs chips and
sawdusf-is either burned 20 he got
rid OF, or left on the ground 10 re-
main as a menace TO the iAlnding for
est. Very little OF this valuable ma
terial is used for fuel. either in lum-
her mills. nearby power houses or In
domestic consumption,
The new process. II II understood.
carbonizes the material. presses tho
resulting charcoal into briquettes that
will have various uses, and besides,
gives by.produets such as tar oil, fuel
gas and acetone alcohol. In this way.
IL Is said comparatively cheap fuel
will be made available to metalurgi-
cal and other industries as well as in
homes. where coal IL not abundant, or
IL actually scarce.
Will Develop Industries.
The methods besides returning an
enormous saving TO the lumber indus
try In any section, IL is claimed will
develop iron and steel industries on
the Pacific Coast where coal is not
found but where ores have been To-
Gated: will produce the valuable by
products, afford cheaper fuel locally:
facilitate the clearing of cut-over land
for agricultural purposes; give the
farmer a return. If not direct pro-
fit, on the materials that ordinarily
hampers preparing of the soil and
make this process much cheaper; will
reduce the cost of reforestation where
lands are not suitable for agriculture.
and finally. will reduce the losses
through forest fires by elimination of
the dangerous piles of waste left by
the timber cutters.
While the process has been success
fully applied to the salvage of saw
dust and other mill wastes, the engin-
GERS backing the movement are still
working on the process of using the
trash left over where the tree was cut.
Forest waste amounts to at least 60
per cent of the standing tree; but
when the other 40 per cent arrives at
the sawmill it is further reduced by
half. For of the average log received
at the mill, the cut of the saw exacts
a toll of about 1875 per cent: bark
waste runs from 10 to 90 per cent;
edging and trimming take another
81 per cent: slabs the same; careless
saving about 3.5 per cent and siz-
ing to standard dimensions about IL
per cent. A fair sized mill produc-
ing 200, 900 board feet of lumber daily
will have 200. cords of waste material
to dispose Of.
No Market For Waste.
While some of this waste is burn
ed to produce steam for the mill, and |
part is cut into small domestic sizes
for local use. considerably more than
half the total mill waste alone is
burned or thrown into waste piles be-
cause there is no market for 1t. A
striking feature of the ordinary saw
mill plant is the enormous cylindrical
tower of the burner" whose fires
perpetually consume the debris Of |
lumber making.
Under the initial salvage expert
ments the new carbonizing and bril-
ouette process has been developed in
a plant at Centralia, Washington and
it is planned to erect ten commercial
briquetting mills from Vancouver,
Il. c., to Marshfield, Oregon.
The Centralia plant has demon
strated, it is declared, that on the
most conservative calculation the |
waste of 100000 foot daily capacity |
mill will produce 60 tons of charcoal
briouettes at a manufacturing cost
of IS per ton, nothing being allowed
for the cost of material when the
plant is operated in conjunction with
the sawmill If the by-products OF
Is gallons of tar oil, 10000 cubic
feet of wood gas, and seven gallons OF
acetone alcohol to each ton of bril-
ouettes are recovered. as has been
shown possible, virtually the entire
cost of manufacturing the briquettes
may be offset by their profits.
II has not been practicable hereto
fore to distill these by-products from
wood waste because the market for
them was not extensive or profitable
enough to carry the costs of operation.
But in the Pacific northwest, at least
remote from high-grade Goals. there
is now a large market for the bril-
ouettes equal to anthracite: so that II
is believed complete utilization OF mill
wastes will be feasible The bril-
ouettes produced by the process are
claimed to be sufficiently strong for
successful use in blast furnaces, where
The fuel must be able to stand COM
preston of about 300 pounds to the
cubic inch. Besides these two gener-
al uses, the new fuel can be used for
the manufacturing of water gas and
in place of lump charcoal in various
ways.
Produce Much Lumber
The mills of the state of Washing