Any Use for the Coal Fines from Stoker?

ginski · Post by **ginski** » Tue. Jan. 23, 2007 6:35 pm

has anyone found a use for the 'fines' they collect from their stokers?

Yanche · Post by **Yanche** » Tue. Jan. 23, 2007 7:44 pm

Yes, spread on ground with coal ash and portland cement. Use a power tiller to mix with the soil, wait to harden and you have soil cement. It's a low strength concrete suitable as a base for real concrete.

Yanche

Post by **Richard S.** » Tue. Jan. 23, 2007 8:40 pm

For those unfamiliar with the meaning of the term, fines refers to the fine particles of coal such as what you'll have left in a coal bin. Basically dust... It's not ash.

rouxzy · Post by **rouxzy** » Wed. Jan. 24, 2007 9:31 am

I throw mine in with a shovel full of coal. But, be very careful because this coal dust can and will ignite as if you just threw gasoline in the fire.
Tom

barley master · Post by **barley master** » Wed. Jan. 24, 2007 1:17 pm

i run them through.

dll · Post by **dll** » Wed. Jan. 24, 2007 1:33 pm

I also burn the coal fines and have experienced some flash back when I dump them onto a hot fire.
Here is a little trivia for you, it comes from a book I read years ago about Rudolf Diesel the developer of the diesel engine. It seems that he was trying to develop an engine that would burn coal dust and almost killed himself with one of his experiments, he finally he settled on the liquid fuel.

Post by **coaledsweat** » Wed. Jan. 24, 2007 2:37 pm

dll wrote:Here is a little trivia for you, it comes from a book I read years ago about Rudolf Diesel the developer of the diesel engine. It seems that he was trying to develop an engine that would burn coal dust and almost killed himself with one of his experiments, he finally he settled on the liquid fuel.

I read some stuff about that, it was quite a powerful engine.

Oo-v-oO · Post by **Oo-v-oO** » Wed. Jan. 24, 2007 4:20 pm

I learned the hard way on one of the coldest days of the year that too much thrown in on top of the fire will pretty effectively cut the draft off.

Won't do that again...

coalkirk · Post by **coalkirk** » Wed. Jan. 24, 2007 7:32 pm

I've got a whole 5 gallon bucket full of fines. I was trying to think of a way to perhaps wet it and press it into small bricks and burn it in a hand fired stove. Does that sound feasible?

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Thu. Jan. 25, 2007 1:27 pm

I tried putting the fines in a paper bag, I tried a grocery bag and several smaller sizes. I rolled the paper tight and set it on top of a hot coal fire. Almost every time I ended up with a solid lump of coal, burning only at the edges. I had to make air passageways in the lump with a poker to get it to burn.

It seems that you can't get enough air through the fines to get them to burn well. They act like a blanket and block air flow.

Maybe if you could dampen them, and pack them in an icecube tray, freeze them to keep them solid, and drop them into the stove while still solid. Seems like a lot of work for a bucket or two of fines..

Take care, Greg L