Solid Energy's efforts to upgrade Southland lignite into a higher energy product has taken a step forward, with the company hailing a trial in the US as a success.Solid Energy general manager new energy Brett Gamble said joint venture partner GTL Energy h
Solid Energy's efforts to upgrade Southland lignite into a higher energy product has taken a step forward, with the company hailing a trial in the US as a success.
Solid Energy general manager new energy Brett Gamble said joint venture partner GTL Energy had produced high-energy briquettes, reducing the moisture of New Zealand lignite by an average of about 65%.
That had raised the energy content by about 50%, so it turned lignite into a product that was on a par with Ohai coal, Mr Gamble said.
The trial batch – made using 420 tonnes of lignite from the New Vale mine near Mataura – was being brought back to this country for commercial customers to test in their boilers.
The results of those tests would be used in making decisions about the feasibility of building a pilot briquetting plant in Eastern Southland that could upgrade about 100,000 tonnes of lignite a year.
GTL carried out the trial in North Dakota where it has commissioned its first commercial-scale lignite upgrading plant.
