Doing the "Eastern Kentucky Bit Shuffle" in Ohio !

Welcome to the Ohio Eastern Kentucky Bituminous Coal Info Vault. Here's where we'll assemble Info,Advice,Ohio Dealers and Locations of Kentucky based mines easily adjacent to Ohio. I haven't lost my rich respect and gratitude for the Northeastern PA. Anthracite Coal. I have found Folks who want to convert to coal who have shaker grate equipped outdoor coal/wood boilers and/or are from the middle to Southern Ohio areas and want to try putting the torch to something closer to home without getting bombed on shipping costs. Give me a little time to get rolling toward the weekend to start getting some data together. In the meanwhile,please feel free to toss in any facts y'all may have to help fill this mission out....Thanx,Bob

As far as sources go, I definately have to reccomend Dan Thompson - Thompson bros. mining in new springfield ohio just outside of youngstown. Not only is he great to deal with, but he always tries to carry some of the best high btu Kentucky lump coals - and Kentucky pea stoker (excellent for combustioneer / Stokermatic type stokers and would likely work very well in an efm boiler as well.) His kentucky lump coal cost 215/ton picked up, and pea stoker was under 200 (last I talked to him which was earlier this year) and were between 13,400-14,200 btu's/lb depending on which mine(s) he was pulling them from; averaged between 4-8% ash, no clinkers- grey/white ash coal. Most importantly, very nice people to deal with. Phone # 330-549-3979

There is apparently a broad range of quality (from low to high) in Eastern KY coal, so beware of your source. I found this via a Google search:

More than 70 percent of Kentucky's annual coal production is from the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field. All of the mined coal in Eastern Kentucky is high grade bituminous. Mean data for quality parameters of the seven principal coal beds in the Hazard district is as follows:

* Sulfur - 0.7 to 5.2 %
* BTU - 10,400 to 15,800
* Ash - 4 to 26 %
* Volatile Matter - 25.3 to 42.0 %
* Moisture - 1.2 to 6 %

Now the real trick is going to be pinning down the low sulfur, low ash, low volatiles, low moisture, and 15,800 BTU's/lb. stuff. Someone in Kentucky should know where to find it. 15,800 BTU's per pound is amazing.

the volitiles (lower vol tends to mean higher caking or coke button, something you definately DON'T want), the sulfur (irrelevent for home heating) and moisture (most eastern coal is so low in moisture anyway, it's not a problem) are not things to worry about, the ash, coke button and btu's are the important concerns for home heating use. many of these things will usually go "hand in hand" lower ash tends to mean less pyritic sulfur and thus lower sulfur etc. 3-8% ash, less than 2 coke button and btu's over 13,000 means that you have some very good coal.

I wonder if this coal has the right properties, or if its coke button is wrong for stove coal? (OK, Berlin, just what is a "coke button"?)

http://www.bluegemcoal.org/

All,
Following is an ad I copied to post here. I burn this coal and have been pleased. It does have a sulfur odor when first loaded but burns off quickly. Remember, I am loading a scoop shovel or more at a time onto red hot wood embers. It has boosted my burn times by 50 to 70 % in my OWB. It burns to a gray/brown ash with very little clinkers. I buy it loaded by their loader in my pickup; I like the big pieces, my neighbor burns the small pieces in a hand fired wood/coal stove. This dealer is in a suburb south of Columbus Ohio.
Rick
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I just went to churches in akron on sat and got two tons of kentucky coal, it was surprising how busy they are. I am on my third day of burning it mostly by its self and i am experimenting with it so far it seams to be working great in my out door stove. The burn time is long and ash is very fine with no clinkers.

motowiz wrote:I just went to churches in akron on sat and got two tons of kentucky coal, it was surprising how busy they are. I am on my third day of burning it mostly by its self and i am experimenting with it so far it seams to be working great in my out door stove. The burn time is long and ash is very fine with no clinkers.

Are you burning it in a coal stove or a wood stove?

I am burning it in a mahoning outdoor stove. It can be used for either wood or coal.

Pics of KY coal fire burning right now, just to take the chill off during the shoulder season. I haven't burned in my hand-fired stove in a while and almost forgot how nice this eastern KY coal is, it can be throttled down so low I only throw a few lumps in once every 24 hours.

In response to Isayre's question on "coke button":

Coke button and FSI or Free Swelling Index are basically interchangable terms that not many understand, but, relay perhaps the most important quality a bituminous coal possesses for home heating use. Coal is basically heated in a dish in controlled conditions and the propensity of it to expand and "melt" is examined. It is then given a numerical rating based on the size of the coke left in the dish. The amount the coal expands is rated from 0 to 9. Nine is a strongly coking coal (highly expanding/melting) and 0 is a totally non-coking coal.

Most Eastern KY and some Southwestern WV coals will be 0-2 coke button which is ideal for home use. Most ohio and western PA coals will be 3-7 coke button coals, while most Maryland and Virginia coals will be 7-9. There is no other quality in coal which can definitively predict a low or high coke-button, some high volitile coals will be low, some will be high, and the same is mostly true for mid and low volitile coals, however, mid and low volitile bituminous coals will likely have mid to high coke buttons.

Interestingly enough, it is often the perception that certain eastern mid or low volitile coals are "good bituminous coals" because of their low volitile content and high btu's. This often creates so much confusion and frustration when trying to burn them because while they may be "good" as in "low smoke" bituminous coals, they are not "good" coals for home use because they fail in the very important area of caking/coking tendency. For home heating use, anything over 6 will be a pain and anything under 2 will be ideal.

Many thanks for that great explanation Berlin!

Good write-up Berlin.
I do have one question Berlin. Have you found that coals with a high coke button tend to have lower ash fusion temperatures? It seems that when I've burned high coke button coals in hand fired stoves there's more clinkers.

I haven't experienced that. Typically, in the east, the coals that have the highest coke button will be coals that also have the highest ash fusion temps. Dan Thompson's ohio coal for example is a fairly free burning coal, but it is a red ash bituminous that tends to clinker if fired too hard; much illinois basin coal is non-coking coal but has a low ash fusion temp and will clinker if fired too hard. Most Maryland/Virginia and much WV coal tends to coke strongly but has a high ash fusion temp. This is one of the reasons why, east of the mississippi, The eastern KY/Southwestern WV coals are so nice, they have a high heat content, low ash content, often very high fusion temps and almost no coking tendency.

Pure speculation, but, what you may be experiencing is that to successfully achieve desired heat output from coals that cake together during combustion, more air has to be supplied. More air raises the temp of whats left of the previous batch fire lower on the grates to a point high enough for fusion and thus clinker production.

This batch was "mystery coal" that I got from lady last summer who moved into a home and didn't want the coal so I don't know it's source.
Here's what happened...
I would load 3-5 lumps 6-8" size in the stove (small circulator stove) and later after it swells/bridges the cavity created is surrounded by coals burning very hot due to ease of air flow with clinkers beginning to form. Decreasing primary air helped but resulted in less heat output compared to other coals. Gently knocking the bridged coal down settles it down some but still would produce clinkers. The clinkers weren't big/bad enough to affect heat output of the stove but I would fish out clinkers every other day anyway just to stay on top of it. Most coals that I've burned around here don't behave like that luckily.