efm Bituminous boiler testing is next week

stoker-man wrote:Thanks coal berner. It's for Joe in Shenandoah. How close is it to him?

Oh there Anthracite breaker is about 12 to 15 miles I would guess they will deliver

stoker-man wrote:As an aside, our dealer in Wyoming says that there are 6500 miners living nearby who can take the coal free from the mine site. Unconfirmed on our end.

I've heard that a few times. Also, when we used to live in Southern Indiana back in the early 80's, our neighbor was an operations manager at one of the strip mines and brought free coal home all the time. I think he got us a ton or two for like $35 once, and that was the first time my dad burned soft coal after growing up near Scranton with a stoker. It was run-of-mine lump burned in an add-on hot air furnace, really designed for wood. What a colossal amount of soot production!

I'd never burn soft coal in anything BUT a stoker. It is the only way to control the release of volatiles and burn them properly.

The upshot is the Wyoming coal doesn't clinker and has low sulfur. Our coal clinkers and has average 3% sulfur. That is why it requires a refractory hearth around the burn pot so the ash melts into a ring and clinkers rather than falling into the ash tub below. A bit more work than anthracite, but for 25% of the cost of anthracite, I could deal with bituminous.

After a whole season of burning Wyoming Bit. coal, I have to agree with Europachris. It's hard to control the volatiles when you have so much fuel in the stove burning at one time. You tend to get two modes of burning (the volatile stage and the post-volatile stage). Heat output is very different from each. A stoker would temper that.

Steinke

stoker-man wrote:As an aside, our dealer in Wyoming says that there are 6500 miners living nearby who can take the coal free from the mine site. Unconfirmed on our end.

That is common practice in the bituminous mines here in my area. The employeees are usually allowed a set amount a year free. Usually around 10-15 ton I believe.

So, if i read this right, You are saying that there very well may be a coal stoker available that burns bituminous coal in the near future??

europachris wrote:
I'd never burn soft coal in anything BUT a stoker. It is the only way to control the release of volatiles and burn them properly.
.

I burn nothing but Bit coal and I don't really see a problem with the volitiles. When I load up the boiler i usually get a fair amount of smoke for about 2-3 minutes. Then, the coal settles down and starts to burn very nice blue dancing flame. I can control it very well by opening and closing the grates. Besides, once the water is up to temp the combustion blower shuts off and the coal just barely burns... far as I know there hasn't been many stokers that burn coal very well if at all. I know Lsfarm had some type of bit stoker and it seemed to work with varying degrees of success.

We received 200# Wyoming coal yesterday, and today, Tuesday, it's already in Shenandoah for testing. Probably right at this moment.

Berlin wrote:, sloping ring around the firepot to deal with the chunks of coal that fuse together and burn casually on the side of the main fire pot. .

I'm pretty sure the EFM's don't have this but the VanWert's do. There's two fingers that circumnavigate the pot as its stoking. If there is any accumulation of clinkers it will knock them off so they fall into the ash pan. I can get pictures if you want them.

Richard S. wrote:

Berlin wrote:, sloping ring around the firepot to deal with the chunks of coal that fuse together and burn casually on the side of the main fire pot. .

I'm pretty sure the EFM's don't have this but the VanWert's do. There's two fingers that circumnavigate the pot as its stoking. If there is any accumulation of clinkers it will knock them off so they fall into the ash pan. I can get pictures if you want them.

The EFM's 700 900 1300 have them the Pot rotate's around hits the fingers to knock off the ash around the pot ring The 350's and 520's do not have them

Any update on the test results? Pictures?

chris

Wyoming coal was received on Monday and taken to the test site on Tuesday. Testing has begun, but no info yet.

Any news or results from the test burns with the Wyoming Bitum. coal??

Currious minds are starved for information !!

Greg L

.

Well by his silence it could only mean two things it was either a success or it failed.

Nope, it's being done right now. Our tester is doing it outside, so weather and spare time is a factor.

Richard S. wrote:Well by his silence it could only mean two things it was either a success or it failed.

Maybe they all just passed out in front of it while watching it run, I can picture three baked guys slumped in their chairs. Happens to me all the time.

But, but, it's dirrrty! I've just got my wife convinced that coal isn't too dirty.

From what I've read, most bituminus gives just a tiny bit less heat than anthracite, but the price more than makes up for it. For those that have the drive to burn it, I'm sure it'll be a winner.