Different types of soft coal.what burns good for you?

you should give it to me

Berlin, I have maxxed out my primary (sort of opening the ash pit door) and secondary air and it is still smokey. From an engineering point of view what would it take to get a clean burn?

From what others have said this coal is a very unusual burning coal.I saw it

burned once in a fireplace and it burned with a very bright light and very

little soot,it needs a lot of top air and when it burns the coal kinda sheets

and slides apart with a lot of volatiles released and the air has to be there to

assist in the full combustion.I don't believe you can burn it in an enclosed

stove unless it is specially constructed to get the secondary air at a high level

to prevent the large amount of soot.


BigBarney

there's not much you can do to get a "clean" burn. any type of bituminous coal in a hand-fired stove will not burn smokelessly, you can reduce the smoke by having preheated secondary combusion air in an air tight appliance, but you will still have some visable smoke, and yes, you will have some little soot balls no matter what; if you have neighbors close by and they feel that a little good clean soot is going to be a problem, you really cant burn it in a hand fired appliance. the coal you have is worse than most bituminous coals because it's roughly double the volitile content (60% vs. 30% for bituminous) cannel coal is not meant to be burned in any type of enclosure and is meant for open fires only.

Thanks europachris, BigBarney, and berlin. I think I get it. Isn't ironic that alchemists never did make gold out of base metals but physicists made gold into mercury.

CokeHead:

You could try mixing it with some low volatility coal which would help

with the extreme amount of soot maybe some 17% vol bituminous

coal and extra above the fire air. I'm not sure but if I remember

correctly cannel coal is 60-65% volatiles and low in carbon but heavy

in oxygen,which doesn't give a good heat profile.The mix would be

about 40%, not too bad for a good burn with plenty of secondary

air.


BigBarney