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33 comments on Coal rank and thoughts on EROEI

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TN Granny on February 6, 2006 - 9:39am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
One other thing to remember also, is that any individual coal plant can only burn a very limited range of coal properties without extensive retrofitting. Also coal is constantly oxidizing once it has been removed from the ground so it loses BTU in transit and in storage. While it is being stored, it has to be reshuffled fairly often to prevent spontaneous ignition and this requires BIG machines that use significant quantities of fuel.
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Don Sailorman on February 6, 2006 - 9:48am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
A nice low-tech solution is cutting peat by hand from your back forty and hauling it to your stove or air-tight fireplace. Smokey? Yes, but if you can get it to burn hot it isn't much worse than wood. (O.K., I know that wood is about the most air-polluting fuel you can burn. But it gets chilly up here near the Canadian border.)
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Heading Out on February 6, 2006 - 12:26pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Um! Having hauled peat for my other grandma (in Scotland) in my youth - you have to stack it and allow it to dry before you can burn it.  And when you do that then in the winter, even in an open fire, it can provide a soft glowing heat that did not burn that fast. Peat and lignite have the problem of both high water and also high ash contents that must be considered when they are used as a fuel source.
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Don Sailorman on February 6, 2006 - 6:36pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Peat burns way way better in an air-tight stove than in an open fireplace. But your are right: The labor is intensive (and not fun), and you do need to dry it. But you need to season wood too, for at least a year, before you burn it.
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ignorad on February 6, 2006 - 10:07am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
A coworker of mine who had a combination wood/coal stove once saw an add in the paper that had "fresh coal" for sale. The coworker remarked that it seemed odd that something sitting in the ground for millions of years would or could be considered "fresh" or stale for that matter. It was amusing at the time, but I suppose the "stale" stuff has sat around exposed and indeed has oxidized.
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33 comments on Coal rank and thoughts on EROEI

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