AHS Coal Gun On Bit Coal!!!

 
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StokerDon
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Post by StokerDon » Tue. Oct. 23, 2018 7:33 pm

I stumbled across this video last night. This guy is in south east Montana, has a AHS S130 that runs on Montana Bituminous coal!


I have never seen, heard or even heard anyone mention that you could burn Bit in a AHS or Axeman Anderson type boiler. This gives you guys that are far from Anthracite Country a whole new coal stoker option.

NEAT!

-Don


 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Tue. Oct. 23, 2018 8:40 pm

Funny, but I was told that I would quite likely burn my house down if I put bituminous coal in mine. The bit fire doesn't hybernate when the fan shuts off and the flapper gaps open to allow over the fire air in, so it could burn right up into the hopper and ignite all of the 250 lbs. sitting in it.

I'd say this guy never bothered to read the manual or consult directly with AHS.

Everyone who owns a hopper stove knows not to burn bit in it for the very same reasons.

 
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Post by McGiever » Tue. Oct. 23, 2018 9:12 pm

lsayre wrote:
Tue. Oct. 23, 2018 8:40 pm
I'd say this guy never bothered to read the manual or consult directly with AHS.
I didn't get that impression after viewing the video.

Not saying I'll be stocking up on Bit. either though.

Terms about bituminous coal are bothersome...coke button, swelling index, high sulfur, high volatile etc. anthracite is so easy buy a load and burn it...if you like it buy that again... :lol:
Last edited by McGiever on Tue. Oct. 23, 2018 9:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Post by CoalJockey » Tue. Oct. 23, 2018 9:14 pm

AHS are manufactured just over the mountain from me. About 3 years ago they sent someone over to our yard to get perhaps a half a dozen or so 5 gallon buckets filled with the smallest bituminous coal that we had. They were testing bituminous coal the time for use in their stokers. I was very interested in the project as soft coal stokers were very popular in this area decades ago and told them to please keep me in the loop.

I was at Ag-Progress days in 2017 and stopped at the AHS booth for a few minutes to talk to the sales rep. I inquired about the soft coal testing but was told that the project had been dropped and no further development was sought.

Perhaps there is someone here from AHS who might know more, I see they are advertising here again.

I’m certainly interested to say the least although very skeptical at the same time. It would have to be a very low-vol soft coal... you guys that run these have had problems with puff-backs in the past and I would think that a puff from bituminous gas would be far more severe than that of anthracite. Some of the Pittsburgh coal we carry here has been known to blow flue pipes apart, blow open the fire and ash doors and fill the whole building with soot if the volatiles are not burnt off correctly.

 
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Post by lzaharis » Tue. Oct. 23, 2018 11:27 pm

The Sub Bituminous Coals from the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana have half the combustables and usable energy that the eastern Bituminous coals do so that is a plus for the sled stokers and the pot stokers and they need to burn twice as much to obtain the same amount of usable energy.

SO the AHS units and the Axeman Anderson units and the EFM pot stokers would be able manage it very well.
They would burn more coal but they would also not give off much unburned sulphur and other volatile gasses as they would burn in the firebox without any puff backs through the tomb stone cover or a smurf with a flame thrower wanting to escape though the ash pit door and burning his way out.

Physics and chemistry; a great combination when it comes to Wyodak Seam and the Big George Seam Coal in the Powder River Basin.

 
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Post by lsayre » Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 5:53 am

The sub-bituminous must be different enough so he can get by with it.

 
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Post by lzaharis » Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 8:56 am

Hello Larry,

The Sub Bituminous soft coal from the Powder River Basin has half the heat of Eastern Anthracite and Eastern Bituminous Soft coal. Many of the power plants in Florida use a 50-50 mix of Eastern Bituminous and Western Sub Bituminous coals as they smoke MUCH less.

Edit to add:

I forgot to mention the Powder River Basin Sub Bituminous Coal is very friable and breaks easily over time when exposed to air and as a result exposing more of this magic black rock surface to burn it more effectively.
When it is mined it is stored in temporary stock piles as it is prone to catch fire by spontaneous combustion.
The mined coal is loaded on the 110 car unit trains as fast as possible around the clock 7 day per week 365 days per year from vertical loading silos at the mine sidings using loading bellows that extend and retract to control the coal dust at the rolling rail car scales that are under the silos.

They spray the tops of the coal loads with a light oil to hold the dust down but it does not work very well and the unit trains leave a trail of fine coal dust for miles along the main lines which also plugs up the railroad ballast reducing its ability to support the track and reduce the amount of water that can drain away from the railroad ballast bed.

They spray the coal loads at some eastern mines but the fine coal dust will be blown away by the unit trains high speeds.

All the mines used to load the cars above the edges of the car tops and they would lose huge amounts of coal dust and even though they do not load the coal above the car edges any more they still have a huge amount of coal dust that blows off the hopper cars.

Installing lids has been suggested to control the fugitive dust but the lids would have to be removed before the hopper cars are pushed through the rotary car dumpers and then reinstalled on the hopper cars before they leave the power plant sidings.

They cannot use covered hopper cars efficiently as the car loading systems and the unloading systems would have to be changed at a huge expense to the mine operators and the power plant owners.

The railroads would love to take the spent ash back to the mined for burial but the power companies will not do that so they have to return to empty hopper cars back to the mines at a greater expense as they have to charge the mines a higher back haul rate per car/ton mile.
The coal companies have to strip mine 200 feet of sandstone on average before they can reclaim the 80 foot thick wyodal coal seam.
Some of the mine operators have to blast the Sandstone overburden off to the one side to mine the coal seam more quickly and they also have to clean the coal they mine Some of the mines do not have to clean their coal as the sandstone breaks away cleanly from the top of their sections of the Wyodak coal deposit.

The Wyodak Coal Seam will have at least a 200+ year life span of coal left in the 80 foot thick(on average) Wyodak Coal Seam in the Powder River Basin if my memory about the deposit is right before they have to think about mining the Big George Sub Bituminous Coal Seam that is 1.100 feet below the Wyodak Sub Bituminous Coal Seam. The Big George Sub Bituminous Coal seam is 200 feet thick if I remember that correctly.

Several of the mine operators are exporting the coal they mine to asian customers via the west coast ports due to the glut of natural gas in the east and the number of power plants that have converted to natural gas.

The natural gas will run our some day soon long before the oil runs out from the oil shale plays and the western over thrust belt and the Sub Bituminous Coal in the Powder River basin will still be there to be mined.
Last edited by lzaharis on Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 12:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.


 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 9:03 am

I really like that his ash is pure powder.

 
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Post by StokerDon » Thu. Oct. 25, 2018 7:52 pm

lsayre wrote:
Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 9:03 am
I really like that his ash is pure powder.
That is one thing that I think all us Anthracite burners envy! I bet he dosen't have a mountain of ash next to his garage like we do.

That is probably due to the type of coal. About 10 years ago EFM, Mark's Supply and Scrapper worked on a little Western Bit Coal project and in this video they mention "see how the coal just turns to dust."

I learned later on that the Pot in this experimental stoker was from a Prill stoker.

-Don

 
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Post by StokerDon » Sat. Feb. 09, 2019 8:33 pm

He's got more videos!

This on is about the ash and a new load of oiled Bit Stoker coal.


Here's one about the auger setup.


-Don

 
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Post by corey » Sat. Feb. 09, 2019 9:40 pm

I sent EfM an email this week about bit they said no soft coal just anth a bummer for me.

 
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Post by StokerDon » Sat. Feb. 09, 2019 10:05 pm

corey wrote:
Sat. Feb. 09, 2019 9:40 pm
I sent EfM an email this week about bit they said no soft coal just anth a bummer for me.
Yes, the EFM 520 is Anthracite or Anthracite/pellets only, no Bit. Not necessarily a bummer for you. The AHS is a better boiler and it looks like you can burn Bit in it.

-Don

 
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Post by corey » Sat. Feb. 09, 2019 10:54 pm

StokerDon wrote:
Sat. Feb. 09, 2019 10:05 pm
Yes, the EFM 520 is Anthracite or Anthracite/pellets only, no Bit. Not necessarily a bummer for you. The AHS is a better boiler and it looks like you can burn Bit in it.

-Don
I would kind of be worried about a hopper fire from My high vol KY bit.

 
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Post by McGiever » Sat. Feb. 09, 2019 11:05 pm

Our friend in the video does it right...
Sh*tty coal will give Sh*tty results...this guy @ twenty acres farms has some Great Coal (sub-bituminous), make no mistake about it...

 
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Post by corey » Mon. Feb. 11, 2019 10:06 pm

McGiever wrote:
Sat. Feb. 09, 2019 11:05 pm
Our friend in the video does it right...
Sh*tty coal will give Sh*tty results...this guy @ twenty acres farms has some Great Coal (sub-bituminous), make no mistake about it...
I burn great coal i just figured since it higher vol it would burn up into the hopper.


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