Soft Coal Burner

What happened to the experiment with burning soft coal in the stoker???

Hasn't been anything posted for about a year...?
EFM Bituminous Boiler Testing Is Next Week

The problem is with the guys in Wyoming. They don't even know what a boiler is out there. Then they had trouble with the worm and Joey made a new worm for them. The guy running the experiment is named Six Pack Jack. I'll have to check again.

Might have to take a trip out there. Joe had the thing working perfectly. Maybe they need some hands on experience. I think Scrapper needs a trip out west to look at some different coal.

I would try the soft coal in my hand fired boiler but don't have access to any.

I am very interested in your soft coal stoker boiler combination, I would like some test done with the coal from Healy Alaska. The Prill units worked well here and we need a reasonalbly priced current production unit. Portage and Main wants around 15,000 as I understand it for a stoker with rotating ring and drive shaft with auger for ash removal, no boiler, and an electronic sheer pin, nice unit but wow. The Coalman unit is nice but hopper is high, and gear box is behind and below hopper limiting modifications, although an elevating system could be made, also I'm not sure of sheer pin system. My underfed anchor stoker works good but twice a day needs tending, and I'm not getting a cow so that I can have two twice a day projects. I've burned about ten tons of coal this winter with signifigant heating degree days and a very ineficient system. Next winter hope to tighten things up and add a BTU meter monitoring water temps in and out of boiler and flow rate ,to determine the true energy I get from each ton of coal, just didn't want to spend another 1,000 on the heating system this fall. I am however concerned about the 2.5 inch auger on the EFM unit my anchor has a 3" inside diameter and was concidered by locals too small and would give trouble, has worked fine so far, I do hear some coal breaking in the hopper when it runs.
I have wondered what happend to the "EFM Bituminous boiler testing next week" thread, the video looked good.

I'll try to find out today.

I'll bet that 'scrapper' has plenty to do right there in PA without taking any road trips.

Funny that the 'bit burner' has come up again. Seems that western PA and Ohio would be the guys 'kicking the tires' on that topic......

Heavy rain here........it is Jan 25 isn't it? Oh well, we'll pay for this warmth.

Illinois -- Indiana -- even Wisconsin (got a globe?) == anywhere close to the mine in Southern Illi'anoid' or the mines of Wyoming or the mine in what ??? North Dakota ( or is that iron ore ) ...--> should be interested - but then there is the stink of it.

Its not fun bringing a product to market with limited production capability and a limited customer base. The way guys chat here about having to wait for their new Ant-Tracks coal stokers to deliver, Why should the company spread themselves any thinner?

Unless I were in Fairbanks Alaska (I wish) the infrastructure to deliver residential coal in the mid-west is dead. Long live the old dead guys, but without that - How can this succeed?

Should we hitch the horse in-front of the cart or the cart first, and hope for forward motion?

I guess I am simply wearing the jaded glasses of an guy that has given up on the possibility.

Residential coal burning in the Midwest would come back if there was a product to burn it. Right now it is like selling snow to the Eskimos. You could give the coal away for free and still have no takers because aside from those hand fed add-on furnaces, there's nothing out there. And, I've burned Indiana coal in one of those furnaces 30 years ago and it was a colossal mess. NOBODY is going to put up with that unless the price of oil, elec., LP, or nat. gas goes up so high as to make it worth suffering through.

It is going to require something like the Combustioneer or Stokermatic stoves, and SMALL stoker boilers be available. The Combustioneer was made in free standing as well as add-on furnace models (with plenum/squirrel-cage blower) and would be a good size for modern homes. The Coal-Man and P&M stokers are HUGE and WAY oversized for any normal home.

Some of the Polish stoker boilers
**Broken Link(s) Removed** look very suitable, but I don't know how well they will work with Midwest coal - no refractory hearth and no rotating ring. I'm not sure a rotating ring stoker will even work with our coals.

But until energy prices go up enough out here and there is a product available to burn our coal relatively cleanly, it's indeed a dead subject. I can assure you that very very few people are going to dig up old stokers and custom build heating plants like me. I'm just a weirdo!

europachris wrote: I can assure you that very very few people are going to dig up old stokers and custom build heating plants like me. I'm just a weirdo!

We would play well together!

Sting wrote:

europachris wrote: I can assure you that very very few people are going to dig up old stokers and custom build heating plants like me. I'm just a weirdo!

We would play well together!

There's lots of "us" out there. My HVAC buddy thinks I'm weird when I ask him if he's run across any old coal furnaces/stokers that I might be able to get.

The boiler is working very well, no broken sheer pins, no unburned coal and it's heating the large area that it's supposed to heat. One problem is that with a 3 foot worm and a shallow bin, there is smoke coming up through the bin, but I told him to put a lid on it with a seal.

No problems reported otherwise.

stoker-man wrote:The boiler is working very well, no broken sheer pins, no unburned coal and it's heating the large area that it's supposed to heat. One problem is that with a 3 foot worm and a shallow bin, there is smoke coming up through the bin, but I told him to put a lid on it with a seal.

No problems reported otherwise.

In addition to the sealed bin, take some high pressure air from the fan and duct it to the bin like an Iron Fireman stoker. This will force the smoke down the auger tube back to the firepot. You could use some 7/8" ID/1" OD (p/n 5262K17) duct hose from McMaster-Carr and rig something up real easy.

stoker-man wrote:I would try the soft coal in my hand fired boiler but don't have access to any.

There is 10 ten more more Bituminous coal mining in PA then Anthracite mining not hard to find nor to get
**Broken Link(s) Removed**http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/bm ... -05-09.pdf

**Broken Link(s) Removed**

**Broken Link(s) Removed**
http://www.penncoal.com/

**Broken Link(s) Removed**

Just as I suspected. All far away.

A dealer near Phillipsburg, PA is sending me a few buckets tomorrow. They call it sand coal because it's so fine. I'll throw some on top of my wood fire and see what happens. He uses an oil oil burner blower to force air under the fire and it works great.