coal dust bricks

[aopagary]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG5TFhdzak4

anyone ever try this?
i haven't bought much coal yet and i've got about 5 lbs of dust already.

[ken572]

aopagary,

Great idea

Thanks, for the video/info.

Ken.

[hammermill]

maybe we could vacum up all the coal dust as the trains haul it to the coast to export it.

then we could heat the caves

i think the chinese do something along these lines to make a hot burning fuel block

[Trainman4602]

That's interesting I have been messing around with this for a month. I had the brain storm about six month ago to try this .

I used a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water.

I then placed the mixture in a cup cake tray and let it harden up. I'm not to sure about using cement. I just thought the glue would just burn up and it did. It took about two days to set up but I just pop them out and there you have it.

I had my first opportunity to try it this last Tuesday. It work great. I plan on making more this week. This time I'll use some old ice cube trays. That will make the bricks smaller.

Here a picture of the coal dust cubes.

[hammermill]

i wonder how it respond to being pressed with a center hole much like several of the briquete aplications

one customer preheats with steam , the wood chips and then feeds to a roller pellet mill

[Fred_V]

maybe we could vacum up all the coal dust as the trains haul it to the coast to export it.

then we could heat the caves

i think the chinese do something along these lines to make a hot burning fuel block

Yeah, I had a pic of one but cannot find it. They have been doing this for centuries.

[Bill Shields]

I would be careful about putting any type of glue in as a binder.

Granted, it is very hot, but you can never be too careful about the by-products of combustion of things - especially if they are not intended to be combusted (burned).

You might not see it now, but I am willing to bet that in a while you will see some sort of build-up on the tubes / smoke box -> colder areas....that might be very difficult to remove.

The products might also be non-healthy to breathe (as if coal smoke isn't)...

Mixing straw or maybe shredded corn husks (got plenty of those if you want a truck load) with the coal slurry and letting it dry would be a clean, totally combustible binder.

Kind of like 'camel chips'...which do burn...surprised our friend from 'north of the border' hasn't tried it yet..

Why don't you just use very fine coal dust in water as a slurry and blow it into the firebox?

If you make it fine enough, it will burn just like oil.

In layman's terms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal-water_slurry_fuel

As for adding CEMENT and then having the mix WOOOSH through your boiler on the way out the stack....I won't have to think more than a nano-second about that. It would be a lot like sand blasting the hot side of your boiler. Tubes would in time be abraded away, etc:

[aopagary]

i doubt the original video had model boiler firebox fuel in mind and i certainly wouldn't use these bricks for that purpose. i doubt if any remnants other than ash would make it up a fireplace chimney. in the video recipe, cement makes up less than 4% of the brick.

[Bob D.]

I seriously doubt there are any nasties from burning white glue since it is made from milk. I doubt the small amount of cement is any more abrasive than the cinders themselves. They throw sand into oil burners to clean the tubes.
I heat my shop with coal. I certainly will be making some fuel blocks to utilize my scrap coal dust and use them for heat. I knew those buckets of fines would be good for something other than sanding the driveway!

[Trainman4602]

When I posted this I had it in my mind that Bill Shields would comment on the use of white glue.

I agree that white glue is harmless to the interior of the flues especially on my boiler I have stainless steel flues.

Yes the effect of the cement is no more than the abrasiveness of the cinders.

I just happen to have a dozen bottles of glue. When it runs out I’ll try the cement.

[Hudson Honey]

Diesels first attempt used a mixture of fine coal dust and compressed air......it proceded to explode.



always thought that was amusing.......however I'm sure Herr Diesel did not think so.

on this process I think compressing this slurry would make it burn longer. something similar to making a vitamin tablet, just larger. In that event the water may not even be nessecary.

[Bill Shields]

I don't think that commercially available white glue is made from milk. Look at a bottle of Elmer's white glue and see what is in it.

Poly Vinyl Acetate is listed as an ingredient on the bottle that I have, and the MSDS (for those of you who know what that is)

http://www.fishersci.com/ecomm/servlet/ ... ption=POLY

And it's big brother, from which it is made:

http://www.airgas.com/documents/pdf/001095.pdf

Would I want to breathe vapors from the stuff? Not really....

Will it HURT the hot side of the boiler? - doubtful. I never even mentioned that it would HURT the boiler - if you would be so kind as to actually read what I wrote previously.

Is there a chance that something will plate out on the flues / smoke box and leave a film? Maybe...which is why I mentioned it.

In industrial boilers, what you are recommending is a real no-no.

I just tossed the thoughts out for the 'know everything' types with no industrial boiler / combustion experiences to shoot down.