Smokeless coal

[reb78]

Now my Rayburn is up and running I have had to buy fuel for it. Mainly for the overnight burn as I run it on free wood during the day. When it was installed at my mothers place we just bought anthracite - been doing that since we bought the Rayburn in 1990. Now I am buying the fuel I have had to look around the market and its flooded with manufactured smokeless fuels. Thats all fine and I have tried four different ones to date. They all burn well and are comparable to anthracite. But it leaves me wondering - they are all made from anthracite! So whats the advantage over the manufactured stuff vs just burning anthracite as it is mined? Anthracite is largely unavailable currently (I think the last Welsh mine producing it has shut) but if all that is available is simply being turned into a standard shape manufactured lump wont we run out anyway?? Why not cut out the middle man and just keep using anthracite as it comes? Is something added to make the mined product go further? Burn better? Burn even cleaner?

Just curious really!

 

[Gritineye]

That's a question I've been asking myself lately.

 

[Turbo]

If you can get hold of the big blocks of chipboard from the corners of pallets they tend to sit & glow in the fireplace once heated up & could serve to keep your fire going overnight.

 

[addjunkie]

If you can get hold of the big blocks of chipboard from the corners of pallets they tend to sit & glow in the fireplace once heated up & could serve to keep your fire going overnight.

The smoke is different, the heat is different and the smell is different. Like an array of other treated materials, when burned, plywood, chipboard and particleboard is likely to release toxic fumes and carcinogens.

Id stick with the ovaloids or whatever they are called.

 

[julianf]

Imagine the stench if everyone tried to keep their fires in overnight by throttling them down on those chipboard lumps....

 

[Keith 66]

Imagine the stench if everyone tried to keep their fires in overnight by throttling them down on those chipboard lumps....

We dont have to imagine, Just pop in the yacht club, the boatyard next door & across the creek have a lot of houseboats, most are running woodburners & burning whatever they can find or get. With weather like we have at the moment the smoke just sits there & yes it stinks summat awful.
You can see how smog could easily come back.

 

[Screwdriver]

Lay a sheet of newspaper over the hot embers last thing at night. Smothers any chance of a fire but insulates the bed of ashes.

Obviously the paper goes up in flames (!) but it leaves an insulating blanket over the fireplace.

 

[Pond frog]

I expect the reason for the briquettes is they can use up all the tiny bits of anthracite dust etc that as not otherwise usable.
the one I’m using at the moment is 50% anthracite 50% crushed olive stones burns as well as any I have tried

 

[mark roberts]

I've got an open fire and always used good quality 'steam coal' from my merchants. Went to order some a month ago and was told they are no longer allowed to sell normal coal. All they have is ovoids. I really liked the old coal, it would lite easily and gave a roaring fire to look at.
These ovoids take ages to light and produce a pretty boring fire if you dont add wood as well.
They do last really well though, I went to relite the fire 24hrs later and there was still loads of bright embers. It does create more ash as well.
I'm not sure if its correct but I was told the ovoids are being made from coal dust and waste from back in the day mixed with concrete waste and compressed.

 

[addjunkie]

I'm not sure if its correct but I was told the ovoids are being made from coal dust and waste from back in the day mixed with concrete waste and compressed.

That wouldnt surprise me, as our local coal man doesnt think hell be able to get them much longer. And has purchased a log processing machine and a fair amount timber to season!

 

[AVI_8]

£305 per tonne delivered for smokeless fuel last year
£620 per tonne now

 

[roofman]

These ovals i am burning atm give off a nice hot glow all night but the ash next day is unmerciful...for this reason i have dedicated my wife a new duty each day to which she shows no thanks

 

[AVI_8]

These ovals i am burning atm give off a nice hot glow all night but the ash next day is unmerciful...for this reason i have dedicated my wife a new duty each day to which she shows no thanks

I ones I get now from the wonderfuel company give off much less ash than the ones I was getting previously from the likes of B & M and supermarkets, works out a cheaper as well but they only supply by the half or tonne pallet.

 

[mark roberts]

£305 per tonne delivered for smokeless fuel last year
£620 per tonne now

I just ordered 24 bags of albright which is 480kg for £260 delivered. I'm going through a bag a day

 

[OJCar]

Our local coal man sells smokeless ovals (Newfire) for £24 per 50kg bag delivered.

Since the supplies of Scottish mined coal ran out,
he decided that none of his customers "would be stupid enough" to pay the £38 per 50kg bag the Columbian coal would work out at,
so he is a coal merchant that doesn't sell coal.

 

[indy4x]

I expect the reason for the briquettes is they can use up all the tiny bits of anthracite dust etc that as not otherwise usable.
the one I’m using at the moment is 50% anthracite 50% crushed olive stones burns as well as any I have tried

Not sure what they do these days but having worked in a few coal processing plants 35 years ago, they were making anthracite 'pellets' from anthracite dust and some form of binder, pressed to make the pellet

They were sort of mini Shredded Wheat size and shape

 

[reb78]

Not sure what they do these days but having worked in a few coal processing plants 35 years ago, they were making anthracite 'pellets' from anthracite dust and some form of binder, pressed to make the pellet

They were sort of mini Shredded Wheat size and shape

Thats the thing in my mind. Unless they are substantially diluting the anthracite then i dont get the point for a lot of applications. My Rayburn burns anthracite well and its hot and its smokeless so why do I need a processed product? Cut out the middle man and reduce cost... I guess if they are just using up anthracite dust we will run out at some point.

 

[reb78]

Most coal is mined from the face by machinery, these days, so very small lumps at best, so reducing to powder and reconstituting is the obvious solution.

When I went down/along a coal face at Bolsover, in the early/middle ’80s, every bit of the product ‘ground’ out of the face was less than about 30mm - and there was not much of that size. Conveyor belts could run much faster with ‘slack’ coal, too. We rode back from the coal face at quite high speed on a conveyor belt.

That makes it make more sense.

 

[Kayos]

I'm sorry, reading these prices plus the effort involved. I will stick to gas

 

[James1979]

I'm sorry, reading these prices plus the effort involved. I will stick to gas

Ditto. If we had mains gas here then a wet rad system with combi is a no brainier.

We don’t so we can’t