Is vacuum transfer of coal a possibility?

Hello everyone, Its been along summer.. Im looking forward to firing up the channing three this year. I still have no coal bin but thats not the issue. For a while I wanted to auger coal from the basement to my stove but that doesnt seem likely by theburning season so now I want to try vacuum pressure. A friend of mine uses a 5.5 hp shop vac to fill 55 gallon barrels with corn for his heat. He put 2 hoses into the lid of the barrel 1 goes to the bulk corn source and the other goes to the vacuum and he claims he can fill the barrel in just a few minutes. So if ran a 2" hose into a coal bin and another hose from the vacuum into the hopper on mystove I think it could work and would be cheap enough for me to try. As usual any feedback from you guys would be much appreciated. Thanks Jim

Hi Jim, it may work, but the first issue I can see is that a barrel is a round container, and are used to hold contents that push outward equally on all surfaces. A Box will have bowed-out sides if holding a liquid.

The same is true for a box under a vacuum, I think the sides will bow inward if the vacuum is excessive. This will depend on the thickness [stiffness] of the metal your hopper is made of. You will need to have coal in the bottom of the hopper, or else the vacuum will pull air and ash form the top of the grate into the hopper. You may have to close off the flue to effect a sealed chamber in the Hopper...

I'd give it a try, just a close fitting piece of 1/2" plywood with appropriate holes for the hoses. Try to find smooth wall hose for the rice coal to flow through, corn is round and light, and would roll/bounce off the corrugations inside a normal shop vac's hose, Coal is heavier and sharper, and may hang up on the bumpy surface.

Also, keep the vertical lift distance to a minumum, or the vacuum won't have a chance to lift the coal..

Let us know how it works, if done right, it may eliminate some coal dust in the house. I assume this is why you want to try this??

Greg L.

With the smaller sizes of rice and pea coal a vacum should not be a problem. With nut I would think the horsepower requirment would go up significantly. With stove coal you are going to be at about 75-100 HP vacum.

coaledsweat wrote:With the smaller sizes of rice and pea coal a vacum should not be a problem. With nut I would think the horsepower requirment would go up significantly. With stove coal you are going to be at about 75-100 HP vacum.

I drove a dry bulk truck for a few months. vacuum will suck up salt or soda ash the size of nut coal with no problem. You will need to also need to use a 55 gallon drum, or something solid to contain the vacuum or it won't work. If there are leaks the vacuum won't work, it must be sealed.

The vacuum transfer of corn is a very common practice with the corn burners. I am a former corn burner as this is my first year burning coal and I was going to try and use my corn transfer system for the rice coal. As stated before the container must be sealed in order for the vacuum to move the product and also you must have a moving air stream at the introduction side or the product will not move.