Alaskan Soft Coal Experiment

Received the shipment of Alaska bit from Short Bus today and it is a whole different animal than the Wyoming bit.

The sizing of the Alaska bit is perfect. It is shown side by side with anthracite rice.



The Alaska bit ash and clinker is identical to anthracite, shown side by side.



This video shows the start up of the fire. Note the blue flame, not seen with the Wyoming bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyfUaOA1S8s

This video shows the established fire with a feed rate of 11 and air of 4-5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpsneZjADZ4

This video shows the fire restarted after a 45 minute shutdown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JxDzrAt4b0

This video shows the smoke produced at rest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgVLS1JXZ34

I'll burn the rest of the coal on Monday.

From what I saw today, the ash clinker is identical to anthracite rice. More than twice the amount of air is needed to burn this coal than the Wyoming coal at the same feed rate, so the fire was hotter and the water warmed much faster. The fire does not go out during extended rest periods. The fire makes NO visible chimney smoke when burning with the fan, similar to anthracite. The sulfur odor is noticeably less than what the Wyoming coal produced. There was never a large hardened clinker in the pot because the fire burns around the edges. I shut the stoker down until Monday with a full pot of ignited coal to see what type of clinker might form. The sparks produced during stoking are less than the Wyoming coal.

There is nothing negative to report about this coal as of now.

I am open to suggestions from bit burners as to what I can do to CAUSE a clinker to form, or any other tips.

No negative is always good, but how much is a ton ?

This coal costs 65$/Ton in Healy Alaska.
I don't see any smoke on my Anchor stoker, when stoking or at idle, but I have rose colored glasses.
I'm amazed the postal service delivered this so quick, I sent sample on Monday.
You might just turn your stoker on Monday and have it fire up, mine will hold fire a long time.
My clinkers form mostly when fired for long periods of time, I don't know how long, they just seam to happen more during the cold months, my stoker is basically outside in -10 to -40 weather so the combustion blower is blowing cold air.

just saw this post and read hope that you are talking about coal from alaska and if so to the question of how much a ton as of last fall it was 65$ a ton at the mine

As Short Bus suggested, the fire was still hot down deep in the pot after 19 hours of rest and there was a talcum power-like ash on top. So, I don't think there is a clinkering problem with a long rest period.

On Monday, I'll burn for the entire day.

Hey that's a pretty cool burn! So if that is at full feed( 11 teeth) what type of heat output would that be roughly calculated? Is there plans to try the Nova Scotia bit coal? Looks like you get to have all the fun Chris

Anybody who wants me to test coal can send me some.

It's pretty hot coal. Not quite as hot as anthracite though.

stoker-man wrote:Anybody who wants me to test coal can send me some.

It's pretty hot coal. Not quite as hot as anthracite though.

How much do you need, and where do I ship it to? I think Nova Scotia bit is ~13,900 btu.

Terry

Short Bus wrote:This coal costs 65$/Ton in Healy Alaska.
I don't see any smoke on my Anchor stoker, when stoking or at idle, but I have rose colored glasses.
I'm amazed the postal service delivered this so quick, I sent sample on Monday.
You might just turn your stoker on Monday and have it fire up, mine will hold fire a long time.
My clinkers form mostly when fired for long periods of time, I don't know how long, they just seam to happen more during the cold months, my stoker is basically outside in -10 to -40 weather so the combustion blower is blowing cold air.

Do you have any pics of your setup? I was told that the bit up here wasnt good for stokers. I find that this stuff burns almost too good. I love them big chunks and how they can burn close to 12 hrs.

Hey Valley, check your messages top of main screen.
Short Bus

For Tamecrow, we need rice sized coal. I've had samples that contain dust, all the way to softball-sized chunks. I made my own breaker. It's called a forklift driving over coal placed between two sheets of heavy steel. My breaker works for experiments, but I won't be putting Blaschak out of business.

Actually, very dusty coal will auger feed, but it's risky for a jam.

I would never admit to crushing coal between two plates of steel that way, but you might through some steel nuts between the plates to reduce the fines, be sure your plate is thick enoughf as you don't want dented plate.

I still think it might be fun to build a little crusher for this. Maybe something that delivers a bushel a minute wouldn't be too over the top.

I thought I had seen or heard of every type residential coal furnace til I came across this a while back.
Would love to get my hands on one.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/Mod ... ions_0.jpg
Maybe the pulverizer could be adjusted to produce different sizes...?

Was able to test burn this coal all day today. The coal was drawn out of a can using only the short auger and tube at the maximum feed rate of 10 teeth. With a cold boiler, 41 gallons of water was heated from 100 degrees to 160 in 50 minutes. To do this with rice anthracite under similar conditions takes 17 minutes. The first picture shows an established fire after 3 hours.



This is the height and width of the established ash ring. Feeding at 19# an hour, maximum, with air at 4.5. If the coal is advertised at 7200 BTU per pound, that is about 134K BTU per hour gross output.



The video shows the lack of any hard clinker. The ash is like Styrofoam pellets to push off the edge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndsvGax9qPw

Whether the heat output can meet the demands of a house in Alaska cannot be determined by me. The coal must be dry enough so it won't clump in the bin and minimizing the fines will be beneficial. The buck sized coal feeds well, has less fines and is totally silent in the pipe. As far as I can tell by this limited test, this should burn successfully if a large BTUH requirement is not called for.