'coal fines'

ginski · By: **ginski** On: Tue Jan 23, 2007 7:35 pm

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

Yanche · By: **Yanche** On: Tue Jan 23, 2007 8:44 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

Richard S. · By: **Richard S.** On: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:40 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.

I've been meaning to set up a glossary, one of hundred things on my list... :roll:

rouxzy · By: **rouxzy** On: Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:31 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 · By: **barley master** On: Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:17 pm

i run them through.

dll · By: **dll** On: Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:33 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.

coaledsweat · By: **coaledsweat** On: Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:37 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 · By: **Oo-v-oO** On: Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:20 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. :oops:

Won't do that again...

coalkirk · By: **coalkirk** On: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:32 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 · By: **LsFarm** On: Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:27 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