By: Berlin On: Wed Dec 15, 2010 11:00 pm
David, any underfeed bituminous stoker, if operated properly and supplied with proper heat reflection in the firebox, can reach 85% combustion efficiency. Efficiency losses from handfiring bituminous coal are not significantly different from losses with anthracite; instead of wasting hydrocarbons as visable smoke, you're wasting carbon as CO. In a large hand-fired appliance where the fire is constantly burning especially low, with bituminous coal sooting of the heat exchanger you will lose heat transfer efficiency (that's not combustion efficiency losses, but overall efficiency), but in a stoker properly tuned, or in a hand-fired appliance that's not significantly oversized, you will get very little if any soot buildup on the heat exchange surfaces. In fact, anthracite coal generally requires a higher percentage of excess air to achieve complete combustion, and in tests on both inclined bed or underfeed stokers bituminous coals consistantly achieve better combustion efficiencies.