Coal Quality From Various Sources

 
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CoalHeat
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Post by CoalHeat » Wed. Apr. 23, 2008 10:06 pm

Greg is right. The photo below is the ash pan from my stoker, showing unburnt coal mixed with the ash. This was rice coal from a coal yard which I believe buys from Centralia Coal Company. I sifted out the coal and placed it back on the grate on the burning coal bed. It didn't burn, even after a second chance.

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mike
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Post by mike » Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 5:59 am

What your seeing in your ash pan is not left overs as a result of refuse coal. Thats whats known as bone. Most veins of coal have a small vein of slate running either right on top of or right through the coal. When your deep mining you could work around this slate, not so when your strip mining. Plus it really tears a breaker up bad when you run culm through it. They have plants just for removing rock and mud from culm for the cogen plants, but not for consumer use.

 
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Post by CoalHeat » Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 7:04 am

Mike, you could be right, or what Greg said could be right. At this point I refer to the quote in my signature. I don't have the knowledge or information on the subject to decide one way or the other.

I do know that I prefer deep-mined coal because-well-it's just better!

 
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Post by LsFarm » Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 2:25 pm

Right from the mouth of a guy working at a breaker: we mix about 20% refuse/culm pile coal with the fresh coal.. some of it burns, and we get paid for our culm piles..

No, I won't tell you who or what breakers/operation.. but it is true..

My ash pan looked MUCH darker than the one pictured above,, MUCH more heavily 'peppered' with black, shiny, unburnt.. when you broke a piece of two,, it was shiny inside, like good coal.. but the stuff had sat in the sun, wind and rain for decades, and all the volitiles had baked out,, even a redhot fire couldn't get it to burn..

It happens a lot,, but not at deepmined coal breakers.. that's where my money is spent.. and my ashpans have ash in them not black chunks of my money being tossed into the ashpile..

Buy the good stuff, not 'Mystery Coal'. The price is the same or often cheaper, and it is all good coal.

Greg L

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Post by mike » Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 4:03 pm

I'm not saying there aren't operators who do mix it, probably very few do though. It really eats up the machinery bad when they do it, any profit made from running the culm through is just about negated by the increase in repairs and maintince. I personally for the most part do burn coal from the breakers that get there coal from underground operators. I know alot of the miners pretty good and I'd rather give them the money. But there is good strip mined coal to be had, some of those pits are deeper than alot of the underground operators are!

 
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Post by coal berner » Thu. May. 01, 2008 12:52 am

Mike buddy Reading is the biggest Refuse coal seller by far out of anybody else 1.275.338 Tons of Refuse coal in 06 alone Now look How Many Tons of Surface mining they did in 06 Wadesville P33 Mine 42.273 tons Buck Run & Pine Knot mine
12.199 tons Not alot of New coal being mine For the second largest Stripping mine Anthracite company in the State of Pa infacted not alot for any large coal company So who and where is all of that Refuse coal going because that little bit of
new coal sure won't take care of all of the People burning coal to Heat there Homes Not only that but I have two very good friends that haul for Reading so I know first hand where that Refuse coal is going not all of it is going to the coal g
en Plants most of it is going into little red & white bags and most of it is not going to the breaker either it is going from the culm piles right to the bagging Plant thats why alot of People on this forum are getting incosistent sizing & alot of wood sticks and a ton of other crap mixed in with there coal You can go and watch them load off the piles and follow the trucks to either to the Breaker or to the Bagging Plant up the Road from the Breaker on Route 54 Reading has alot of land with huge Piles on them from decades ago as you should already know and there are reclaiming most of them now Remember they use to be the Largest coal company around lots & lots of land with lots & lots of coal Piles Now if my only choice was getting coal from Reading or Blashack I would buy Blashack hands down but thank god I don't have to as you know I am not a fan of any stripping coal the only one I buy from is Summit Being that is all they are doing right now But I can say this I liked there coal more when they where out by there breaker at the Feather mine it had more heat then what they have now out by my place ;)

 
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Post by mike » Thu. May. 01, 2008 6:09 am

I could tell you right were 90% of Readings refuse is going, Cogen plants! The Riches have two big ones. Gilberton Power and Schuylkill Energy Resources. There coal is probably the most suspect though. I bought a couple of bags early in the year and it was as bad as eveybody says it is.


 
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Post by Richard S. » Thu. May. 01, 2008 8:29 am

I wonder if any of that makes it into the bags, I know a dealer and he swears by it. :P

 
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Post by mike » Thu. May. 01, 2008 5:17 pm

I know people too who got from reading and didn't think it was bad, but from my own experience it could have been a bit better. The coal I'm burning now, Lennings, is without a doubt the best I've burnt. I like it even better than superior which is damn good too. At any rate lennings coal has wood chips in it too, but it's from chute plank from in the mine. You could tell because it's fresh and not old soft wood like I found in some coal I burnt. Look at it this way though, If reading is running banks, it is deep mined coal! Problem is it was mined 100 years ago.

 
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Post by coal berner » Tue. May. 06, 2008 12:57 am

mike wrote:I could tell you right were 90% of Readings refuse is going, Cogen plants! The Riches have two big ones. Gilberton Power and Schuylkill Energy Resources. There coal is probably the most suspect though. I bought a couple of bags early in the year and it was as bad as eveybody says it is.
Yep mike know all about the coal Gen plants Have few friends that work there two ;)

 
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Post by coal-cooker » Tue. May. 06, 2008 7:04 pm

We have very few choices in Maine, but what I have found is size can make a diffence in the quality from different dealers. I buy mostly Blashak and Kimmel due to availability. Kimmel nut sucks, full of junk and all sizes. Their pea coal has always been good and is at least as good as Blashak. I stick to Blashak for my nut coal, even at their higher price.

 
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Post by LsFarm » Tue. May. 06, 2008 10:43 pm

That's because Kimmels buys from wherever, whoever, whenever... I'm surprised you found their pea to be good... the next time it may be bad and the nut coal good,, it just isn't worth the gamble... buy from a good, known source,, don't buy 'Mystery Coal'..

I have my coal trucked in, and would never consider buying 24 tons of 'whatever', too much money to gamble... so I pay the breaker myself, and get the trucker to go pick it up... and I get a weight reciept from the breaker.

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eurotek
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Post by eurotek » Tue. May. 06, 2008 11:19 pm

were is the best place to get coal in NE PA Pocono area?

 
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Post by cArNaGe » Wed. May. 07, 2008 12:13 am

eurotek wrote:were is the best place to get coal in NE PA Pocono area?
Head down 81 to the Tremont/Tower City exit. For the good stuff.

 
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Post by mike » Wed. May. 07, 2008 6:13 am

[quote="LsFarm"]That's because Kimmels buys from wherever, whoever, whenever... I'm surprised you found their pea to be good... the next time it may be bad and the nut coal good,, it just isn't worth the gamble... buy from a good, known source,, don't buy 'Mystery Coal'..

Kimmels has there own deep mine right now. It's a brand spanking new operation. The vein there in is a nice vein too. Last I talked to someone down there they had the same thing going on that superior did. The ash was a little high but they expect it to come down the farther they go in. In a year or maybe sooner there coal SHOULD be pretty good.


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