The Press

Processor taking coal out of dairying

- Chris Hutching

Milk processor Synlait is making progress on its pledge to reduce its carbon footprint by using less coal to fuel its boilers.

John Penno, Synlait’s former chief executive, promised last year that the company would never commission another coalfired boiler, and was also looking into co-firing boilers with biomass.

In the next few days, the company will boast about commission­ing its first electrode boiler for its Dunsandel plant in Canterbury.

And Synlait is also preparing to take delivery of a natural gasfired steam boiler at Pokeno in Waikato where it can tap into a piped natural gas supply.

The Pokeno 25MW natural gas project was a boon for Lyttelton Engineerin­g.

General manager Richard York said it was the largest boiler the company had ever made and

16 of the 87 staff were apprentice­s who had the chance to work on it.

York said the completed

43-tonne boiler will be transporte­d in April on the Interislan­der ferry and then by truck to Pokeno, where his staff would install it.

For the Dunsandel plant, Synlait harnessed the expertise of boiler maker Energy Plant Solutions of Palmerston North, and the Energy Efficiency Conservati­on Authority.

A Synlait spokeswoma­n said the ultimate plan was to entirely remove coal from three other boilers in Canterbury, but it depended on the electricit­y supply capacity from the Orion lines network.

The improved boilers were only part of Synlait’s efforts which included targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and nitrogen leaching on the farms that supply it with milk.

Farmers who do not use palm kernel, blamed for rainforest destructio­n overseas, are rewarded with a higher price.

 ??  ?? Synlait’s new gas boiler will be transporte­d from Lyttelton Engineerin­g on the Interislan­der ferry next month and then taken by truck to Pokeno.
Synlait’s new gas boiler will be transporte­d from Lyttelton Engineerin­g on the Interislan­der ferry next month and then taken by truck to Pokeno.

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