Coal Vac for Pea Coal?

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Vampiro
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Post by Vampiro » Mon. Nov. 28, 2016 7:40 pm

Has anyone used a coal vac for pea coal? I have a spare 55 gallon drum that I would like to use for a coal vac type setup.

Option 1: I would need to fabricate a stand for the drum, and put heavy duty casters on it to roll it from the outdoor bin, suck up the coal, then roll it over to the bin window to open the flapper and send the coal into the bin.

Option 2: Would be to run a hose from the vac located on the drum to the outside bin. The length is around 20 feet though, so I might need more than one shop vac. The drum vacs I've seen are only around 3 or so horsepower, and expensive to boot. If I can adapt a higher HP and higher CFM shop vac to the drum top, it would move more coal.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 
lzaharis
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Post by lzaharis » Tue. Nov. 29, 2016 12:58 am

The issue is power and how much more power
you would need(A LOT) to transfer the Pea coal using
the dilute phase transfer of solid materials
using a HG pressure gradient.

You would be money and time ahead using the largest electric
leaf blower to blow the coal into a bin by shoveling the pea coal
into a set of PVC reducers eventually reducing the fittings to a 2
inch short Tee or sweep which is connected to the 2 inch PVC fittings to
lengths of white PVC to a barrel with a fitting in the lid connected to
a shop vac with a dust deputy to help pull it through the piping and
filter out the fine coal dust.

There is a link on the forum to a pressurized transfer system used to
move wood pellets and the theory and the physics of it is the same.
Last edited by lzaharis on Tue. Nov. 29, 2016 8:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
unhippy
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Post by unhippy » Tue. Nov. 29, 2016 5:53 am

Leon (Izaharis) is bang on when he notes that power is the problem with a vacuum system...i've played with a pneumatic transfer system for up to pea size coal based on a big air compressor for motive power thru a venturi vacuum type setup.

A pure vacuum system works well until the coal pieces hit about 1/2" or so.....after that your power requirements start going up considerably to achieve the same lb per minute output of coal.

A blown system seems (at least in the setup I have played with) to be alot better at dealing with larger particles for the same amount of power input....

But, the fact that I can use 100cfm of air at 125 psi if I need to, means that I can blow coal thru pipework that no mortal leafblower could even start to push coal thru....however a fair bit of my playing was to see how little power I needed to get things to work as I wanted them to.

It was a bit surprising just how low I was able to turn the air velocity down and still get coal to blow as long as I didn't have any sharpish bends in the pipe....that was certainly down within the range of a decent leafblower.

If your system has to climb much, your power requirements go up noticeably once you get over about 40deg's....dunno about going downhill as I didn't try it.

I did notice that the blown setup seemed to create more dust than a vacuum system....i think that may be down to the velocity of the coal in the tube as it was alot higher in the blown setup.

Callum

 
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McGiever
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Post by McGiever » Wed. Nov. 30, 2016 10:55 am

Requiring the 20' distance that was stated, you are within easy auger range, but I do understand shop vacs are very flexible and a dime a dozen so to speak.


 
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Vampiro
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Post by Vampiro » Wed. Nov. 30, 2016 1:00 pm

Thanks for the replies. I don't have a powerful enough air compressor for the task, so I can't implement these idea's. I do like the idea of an auger. Mainly a flex auger would be the best bet if I go that route. I would also like to auger the ash as well. For now I will try the stand idea with the shop vac, and moving the drum to the bin. 400 lbs at a time is better than wheelbarrows (although it is good exercise )

Thanks all for your help and ideas.

 
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Post by unhippy » Wed. Nov. 30, 2016 3:22 pm

From my experimenting/playing you wouldn't need a powerful air compressor.....a decent leaf blower would do it if you were blowing the coal down a 20 to 30ft pipe with no bends.

however an flex auger would work straight off the bat as long as it was sized for pea coal

 
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Post by McGiever » Wed. Nov. 30, 2016 4:12 pm

I found and bought a 19' grain auger on Craig's List a while back for $125.00...it has an electric motor and the 5"x19' tube is galvanized. I've yet to use it though. :roll:

As for the flex auger setups...it's the motor and gear reducers where you tie up some money.

Went and also looked another time at a large flex auger (very long livestock feeding) used one which was removed and only need to pay for and load it but I passed on it...although the price was right...was way overkill for my needs. ;)

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