HONGKONG.
REPORT ON REFUSE DESTRUCTORS BY MR. T. L. PERKINS.
No. 1208
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor.
HONGKONG, 15th March, 1906.
In accordance with your instructions I beg herewith to forward plans* showing proposed Reclamation of land at Kennedy Town together with the designs for a Destructor to be placed on the site when reclaimed.
As regards the reclamation, it is intended that only the area required for the Destructor - site and the road bordering it should be reclaimed in the first instance and this is all that the appended Estimate provides for. The completion of the Reclamation Scheme could be undertaken at a later date, the remaining area being gradually filled in with the residue clinker produced by the Destructor.
His Excellency has stated that provision should be made for dealing with 100 tons of refuse per day and the Destructor has been designed accordingly. Sufficient room has however been provided in the proposed building to enable two more cells to be added.
It is necessary, before commencing to design any scheme, to assume that some particular type of cell will be used, as the differences in the various types of Destructors are in many cases such as to necessitate an entirely different arrangement in planning. I append a Table* containing particulars of the various types in use in several large towns and, after consider- ing it carefully, have adopted the Horsfall Destructor in the design submitted. The follow- ing are some remarks upon the various kinds of Destructors in use.
It will be seen from the Table that the Fryer Cell, manufactured by Messrs. MANLOVE & ALLIOTT of Nottingham, is apparently the most popular. This is however accounted for by the fact that the Fryer Cell was on the market for some years before any other cell of repute was brought out, having been first erected at Manchester in 1876. A modification of this cell has been recently erected at Shoreditch where it is worked in connection with the Elec- tric Light Station and this has received more attention, been more praised and more criti- cised than any Destructor yet erected. Its success, which is undoubted, has not however been due so much to the cell as to the installation of Haipen': Thermal Storage System, which consists of a cylinder so constructed and insulated with non-conducting materials and closely packed reservoirs that the loss by radiation is reduced to a minimum. In this cylinder heat is stored up during the day and utilized during hours of heavy load at night. I have had 7 years' personal experience in the working of the Fryer Cells. After completion and trial for some time they had to be altered by applying forced draught to the furnaces, which resulted in increasing their capacity by 2 tons per cell per day.
In the case of refuse which will burn readily the Fryer Cell has its advantages-the first cost is not so heavy as for some others, it does not get easily out of order and it lends itself to an economical design of Building. It will be seen from the Table however that in several instances the Horsfall Cell has been substituted for this make.
Another of the cells claiming attention is the Meldrum, manufactured by MELDRUM BROS. It is claimed for this cell that it destroys a very large amount of refuse per day. It is undoubtedly a very good one, but its records, so far as I am aware, are principally in connection with other works such as Sewage, Pumping and Electric Light works, where the question of high steaming power has been the first consideration and the refuse has been rich in calorific value. At Hereford, for instance, where one of these was installed in con- nection with the Sewage works, the calorific value of the refuse was equal to evaporating 1.34 lbs. of water per 1 lb. of refuse.
* Not printed.