Wrong size coal for efm

I recently got two tons of rice delivered, To my suprise,i think there is some buck mixed in with it. I been screening my coal with the same 1/2' inch screen for 25 years and never had this much coal not make it threw the screen. From what i hear the quality of coal is not that good in the scranton wilkes-barre area, apparent by this delivery. My question is,this coal is about 1/2 by 9/16 and some pieces about 3/4 inches long,will i be ok to just throw it in the drum? I see where a lot of guys just burn buck in there efm.s, do they usually screen it,and what size screen? Thanks Rick

zickeres wrote:I recently got two tons of rice delivered, To my suprise,i think there is some buck mixed in with it. I been screening my coal with the same 1/2' inch screen for 25 years and never had this much coal not make it threw the screen. From what i hear the quality of coal is not that good in the scranton wilkes-barre area, apparent by this delivery. My question is,this coal is about 1/2 by 9/16 and some pieces about 3/4 inches long,will i be ok to just throw it in the drum? I see where a lot of guys just burn buck in there efm.s, do they usually screen it,and what size screen? Thanks Rick

Barley / Buck # 3 should be 3/16 x 3/32 - Rice / Buck #2 coal should be 5/16 x 3/16
Buckwheat # 1 should be 9/16 x 5/16 - Pea coal should be 13/16 x 9/16
Aslong as you do not have Pea Size Pieces going in you should be ok. I burn Buck in my 520 What I do is Take the real big
pieces put them on the floor hit the with a hammer throw them into the drum . The buck will crunch a little going up threw the Auger Tube . Just Take the bigger pieces and break them up . My Screen is 3/4 " Sq holes

I know EFM doesn't recommend it but I've had EFM customers that have ran straight buck. As coal berner mentioned you might hear some crunching but it shouldn't be an issue.

I ran a ton of buck through mine, it burned hotter than rice coal but also created much more noise and fines. In the end I switched back to rice coal, I was worried about the extra wear and tear caused by grinding up the coal. Burn it if you got it, no question about it, but if given a choice I would stick with the rice size.

e.alleg wrote:I ran a ton of buck through mine, it burned hotter than rice coal but also created much more noise and fines. In the end I switched back to rice coal, I was worried about the extra wear and tear caused by grinding up the coal. Burn it if you got it, no question about it, but if given a choice I would stick with the rice size.

ED I have been burning buck threw mine and it does not make more fine then Rice which i am burning now and using
twice as much coal aswell with buck be bigger in size you can turn the feed rate back and save coal because it burns hotter then Rice. But you must increase the air to burn it more complete .Also buck is much cleaner then Rice is always dirtier then any larger size coal so unless your buck is over sized buck you should not have more fines in it . I have twice as mch fines burning Rice then Buck . And a lot more BTU's with buck Per lb .

I might have gotten oversize buck, the average piece was about the size of a quarter, some were like the size of my thumb. It really sounded like the auger was grinding the coal up. crunch,crunch...

e.alleg wrote: the average piece was about the size of a quarter,

That's pea coal and the quarter analogy is generally what I use to describe it. Buck is about the size of a dime.

here's what I had

e.alleg wrote:here's what I had

Rice Size Should be 5/16 to 3/16 Buckwheat # 1 Should be 9/16 to 5/16 Pea Should be 13/16 to 9/16

http://www.readinganthracite.com/images ... 0front.pdf

I can't deviate from the rice coal that efm recommends in the stoker, but I can say that I have heard good reports about burning buckwheat in them.

Coalberner stated the advantages of less dust and being washed and you'll have to experiment with the air and feed ratios.

i am burning rice right now because the conveyor for the buck was out of order.......i had to change my settings, i had to add more feed and reduce the air to get the same amount of heat as i do with buck......the rice ash is making patties with unburnt coal on the edges......hopefully i can get buck in a few weeks

stoker-man wrote:I can't deviate from the rice coal that efm recommends in the stoker, but I can say that I have heard good reports about burning buckwheat in them.

Coalberner stated the advantages of less dust and being washed and you'll have to experiment with the air and feed ratios.

also burning less coal aswell with Buck Rice always has dirt & lots of fines in it because of it size and being mix with the smaller barley size coal . as stoker - man say you will have to find the sweet spot you will reduce the feed rate and
increase the air.But watch you do not add two much air burning coal down into your auger tube my accur and burning up your grates can happend to.I am not the only person in the world that every burned Buck in a efm since efm been making
them People have been burning buck in them I know of few old timer's that has used buck since they bought there efm's
back in the 50's and never had problems with burning the correct size buck.Them units are still in service today .
And them guys are in there late 70's and early 80's And probably forgot more about efm's then anyone on the forum
knows. If you do burn it You have be careful & watch what things are doing and correct any issue that may come up .
or just stick with burning Rice and Leave the Buck for me to burn