Biomass Briquettes for fuel vs coal

[marinesteam]

The sawdust bricks are showing up at our local home center. The literature says they have a higher energy content than an equal weight of hardwood and produce less ash.

Here is a link to one of the manufacturers

http://www.biopellet.net/

Ken

S.L. Chequamegon (YTBB)

[thamessteamer]

We burn briquettes very successfully on the 60 foot passenger steamer 'Alaska' on the Thames and have been using them for 3 1/2 years. We burn the smaller reciprocating press type briquettes which are 2 inches diameter and 1/2 to 5 inches long. Unlike 'Blazers' and other screw press produced 'logs' these use much lower pressures and no gas burners to heat the die. These smaller briquettes stow easily in te bunkers and do not require bespoke storage bins like the screw type. As the lignin in wood is not chemically changed by high temperatures the smoke is pleasant smelling and not as thick. However, it should be noted that if you are making smoke you do not have efficient secondary combustion. Whilst this is inevitable on light up and to a lesser extent when placing new fuel on the grate, as 80% of the energy in a briquette fire comes from the smoke burning it is vital that secondary combustion is achieved properly. You should also be aware that incorrect combustion can double or even treble fuel consumption and cause the deck to disappear under a thick layer of soot and sparks. We now run with little or no smoke, no sparks and very light or no soot. Be careful where you get your fuel! there is a lot of far east and eastern European fuel around which has dubious environmental credentials and can contain mdf and chipboard waste which produces very unpleasant and probably toxic fumes. A lot of fuel is overpriced as it is sold on by agents or sold by companies making a killing out of dubious 'environmental' marketing. We pay approx 30%of the normal market rate as we have found a supplier who is making briquettes to save on heating and waste disposal bills in his joinery works and recognises that we are actually doing him a favour by taking the surplus off his hands before he has to burn it during the summer or send it to landfill. We have done very little in the way of modification - we have changed the damper bar so that the first 'notch' opens the damper only 5% and fitted notched latches on our two fire doors. Normal running has the damper on the first notch or closed and one notch on each fire door (about 1/2 inch). We can maintain 100psi relatively easily and even blow the safety valves at 150psi without much trouble. The fact that we have 101 fre tubes probably helps Response is much quicker than with coal and consumption by weight is about 1/3 more. Consumption by volume is far greater and range is reduced from 36 hours to 14 hours. We have also installed a spark arrestor in the funnel to cope with dusty fuel and engineers' faux pas which cause small particles to be drawn up the funnel. This has been a dome type mesh for the last couple of years but we are about to install an inverted cone type which will burn off any debris. The changeover has been thoroughly worthwhile and the boat now stays clean and varnish and paint stays bright anf scratch free with no gritty or greasy smuts. The engineer also stays clean and refuelling is a pleasant experience, only needing a soft hand brush to sweep up loose sawdust and shavings. It takes some perseverence to get everything 'tweaked' and get rid of smoke and reduce fuel consumption but do it!

[tac1]

The best price I have been able to source is around £200/1000kg delivered, for either the small 2-3 inch diameter hocky-puck items or the more dense eco-logs which are about 300mm long. In each case claimed energy content is 5-5.5 kWh/kg. They are certainly hotter (and cleaner) than normal seasoned hardwood, not sure about kiln-dried. For both types I have found either similar or identical products on sale at 50-75% more.

Is the £200/1000kg reasonable, or am I kidding myself and still paying too much?

Thanks for any comments/information

[gondolier88]

Very good value!

[PeteThePen1]

Hi

Glad to hear wood briqettes might do for us small boaters. However, where in the UK is the £200/1000kg source?

Regards

Pete

[GoldenCoals]

We supply wood briquettes which provide excellent burning qualities and high calorific output. In support of steam boating and SBA members, we will offer a 5% discount on our product. Please visit www.goldencoals.com for more information.
Many thanks for looking and Happy Steaming!

[gondolier88]

Hi GoldenCoals,

From your website, and I qoute;

"Wooden briquettes are a sustainable fuel as they are most often produced from wood which is growing in sustainable forests or recycled"

Can you gaurentee FSC certified suppliers for all your products?

Also could you possibly tell us what is the usual source of the sawdust/chippings is please?

Thanks.

Greg

[Amitkapoor]

Thanks for the information. If you want to know anything about Biomass Briquettes then visit us.

[Rainer]

One thing you have to think about - keep it dry!

I had stored some kg under my floor plates as I do with coal for longer trips - after some water intake the Wood Briquettes did a great job as popcorn and automatic floor elevator...

Rainer

[Lopez Mike]

Have some of these logs all pre-chopped up into discs about an inch long and stored in a couple of square plastic containers with tight fitting lids. There is no wax added to these and when I mess up and run low on wood or want to do some 'racing', out they come and way we go.

My boat is boiler limited for longer runs at higher speeds so some 'special fuel' works well for me. So far, no igniting of passengers.

Mike