# Wood (pellet) burner?



## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

Has anyone ever tried burning wood pellets rather than coal in a loco? My dad and many other folks in the Northeast have pellet stoves to heat their homes. they have a very small fire box with a good flow of air and they put out a good amount of heat with a small flame. I would guess they would work in a model boiler too. in the stoves they seem to make a certain amount of powdery ash. 

Seems like a natural but crazy cheap Yankee idea!


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## hcampbell (Jan 2, 2008)

I've been wondering about that,too. There was an article about its use in a ride on scale loco a while back. I think a face full of ash was the major drawback. 

Harvey C. 
SA1838


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## scottemcdonald (Jan 11, 2008)

I watched a pellet wood burner in operation at a local hardware store one time. You could see the rate at which the pellets were being fed. I figured (visualized) that at the rate required, you would need a gravity feed hopper the size of what a paintball gun has in order to feed at the rate needed to keep the fire hot enough to boil water for a ten minute run or so. So even though I haven't tried it, the visual impact of the rate of flow for the pellets was enough to convince me that it would be impractical in our scale. Just my 2 cents worth. ;-) 

Scott


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## iceclimber (Aug 8, 2010)

Hey, you could get some hickory and rig up a spit over the boiler for a nice smoked lunch.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Torry Krutzke and I tried it once as an experiment in one of his coal-fired locos. Suffice to say the smoke and smell was phenomenal, and it even managed to keep steam going fairly well. However, if I recall Torry's story accurately, he spent quite some time with a stiff wire brush cleaning deposits off the flues. 

Later, 

K


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## HeliconSteamer (Jan 2, 2008)

Dave Watkins of Idris fame built a small 16mm scale Bagnall similar to Isabelle now on the Amerton Railway and chose to fire it on solid fuel. He uses a heating product called Homefire, but I am not sure if it is available here in the states. He reports that the loco has to be fired about every 70 yards. This sounds like a high frequency, but do bear in mind that the prototype is in the same size range as a Quarry Hunslet. 

http://www.davewatkins.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/16mm railway/steam.htm


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## general1861 (Jan 22, 2010)

I have a pellet wood burner for heat in my house. We use the pellets to start with and then mix the corn in with it. once the corn starts burning it gets almost twice as hot as the wood pellets with little residue...just an idea.....Travis


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## general1861 (Jan 22, 2010)

I have a pellet wood burner for heat in my house. We use the pellets to start with and then mix the corn in with it. once the corn starts burning it gets almost twice as hot as the wood pellets with little residue...just an idea.....Travis


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

Sounds like it might work but would take a lot of stoking and cleaning afterwards plus perhaps a spark arrester? 70 yards would be right around my line I think. One stoking per lap is as good as i had hoped for even with coal firing. 

My plan is to build a Ruby with a solid fuel boiler (could easily be converted to alcohol any time) 

I guess the decision can be made once the engine is complete as the grate for a coal fire would be the same as what is needed for a pellet engine. It would be fun to try.


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

"We use the pellets to start with and then mix the corn in with it." 

Clarification please. Is this whole dried ears of corn or just the cobs? Probably a by-product of my upbringing, but burning something that could be used for food seems wastefull to me. 

Thanks, 
David Meashey


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

but burning something that could be used for food seems wastefull to me. 
Tell that to the auto industry.  

Now, if you could do that with broccoli or spinach... 

Later, 

K


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Kevin;

I think the corn grown for ethanol is actually grown specific for that purpose. I also saw some news coverage once that showed somebody working to turn stale candy bars (the ones that had been pulled off the store shelves) into ethanol. Don't know whether that ever became profitable.

"Now, if you could do that with broccoli or spinach..." Yeah, and cauliflower too. I can handle spinach raw in salads, though. All three will produce gas, but I'm not sure how to get it from the "source" into the fuel supply for a vehicle.









The comment regarding spinach reminded me of a unique timing talent my old college, Millersville State, had regarding the serving of steamed spinach. Seems that the maintenance crew always managed to clean the algae from the lagoon on the same day the cafeteria served steamed spinach. So we students would walk past a wheel barrow full of green glop on our way to supper, only to be confronted by the same green glop once we arrived in the serving line! Did tend to make one forgo accepting the cafeteria's offering.

Yours,
David Meashey


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## s-4 (Jan 2, 2008)

I used to experiment with wood pellets inside the smokebox of my Ruby. Instead of fully burning, they would merely smoke and smolder from the butane fire nearby. It smelled great, and only made a mess of the smokebox. I always wanted to try it with soft coal, but only had anthracite on hand which couldn't overpower the butane smell.


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## benny2.0 (Jan 12, 2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SgRY8LJssA&list=UUGEwGKPR3QGE4V2KOgO7HRQ&index=9&feature=plcp 
This was my first attempted with wood pellets on a vertical boiler. 
The ash pan and fire box need a lot of air holes above the wood pellets. 
Wood pellets need more air over the top of them. 
Pellets like to burn from the top down. 
Coal seams to like to burn from the bottom up. 
Ill have to find the other video with all the air holes.


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By benny2.0 on 27 Jan 2012 01:33 PM 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SgRY8LJssA&list=UUGEwGKPR3QGE4V2KOgO7HRQ&index=9&feature=plcp 
This was my first attempted with wood pellets on a vertical boiler. 
The ash pan and fire box need a lot of air holes above the wood pellets. 
Wood pellets need more air over the top of them. 
Pellets like to burn from the top down. 
Coal seams to like to burn from the bottom up. 
Ill have to find the other video with all the air holes. 
Looked like it worked. What was the pressure you were getting?


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

That did look like it worked. probably would be better still with a "blower" Did you have one? 

I think i will build a boiler that will burn either coal or pellets...probably would burn alcohol too with the right burner!


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## Charles M (Jan 2, 2008)

Dave. 

Dried shelled corn, no cobs are used. Fuel is sold in 50 lbs bags. Has several disadvantages. Has to be kept dry or it molds or tries to make ethanol out of itself. A big problem with rodents , squirrels, mice , and rats all love it. It they find you have it, good luck keeping them out of it . Makes a hot fire , with little ash. Makes a cone shaped ash pile in the stoves I have seen. Can be removed and used as plant food when cool. . Its true it is a food product being wasted. 

Charles M SA #74


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Charles;


Thanks. I had never heard or read of burning corn before, except when folks left the popcorn bag in the microwave for too long.
Franklin County, VA, just to the south of Roanoke County, VA where I live, has been noted from time to time for producing volatile liquid corn products, but the burning happens once it is swallowed.









Best,
David Meashey


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Dave Meashey on 27 Jan 2012 07:12 AM 
"We use the pellets to start with and then mix the corn in with it." 

Clarification please. Is this whole dried ears of corn or just the cobs? Probably a by-product of my upbringing, but burning something that could be used for food seems wastefull to me. 

Thanks, 
David Meashey 
We burn it all the time in our cars. thanks to ethanol.


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

gibs;


You need to look back a couple of posts, and you would have seen this:


"Kevin;

I think the corn grown for ethanol is actually grown specific for that purpose. I also saw some news coverage once that showed somebody working to turn stale candy bars (the ones that had been pulled off the store shelves) into ethanol. Don't know whether that ever became profitable."


Using solid corn is new to me. My last post: 


"Charles;


Thanks. I had never heard or read of burning corn before, except when folks left the popcorn bag in the microwave for too long.
Franklin County, VA, just to the south of Roanoke County, VA where I live, has been noted from time to time for producing volatile liquid corn products, but the burning happens once it is swallowed.







"


This was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the large amount of moon shining that has been practiced over decades in Franklin County, VA. Corn "likker" vs ethanol.

Yours,
David Meashey


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Dave Meashey on 31 Jan 2012 08:57 AM 


gibs;


You need to look back a couple of posts, and you would have seen this:


"Kevin;

I think the corn grown for ethanol is actually grown specific for that purpose. I also saw some news coverage once that showed somebody working to turn stale candy bars (the ones that had been pulled off the store shelves) into ethanol. Don't know whether that ever became profitable."


Using solid corn is new to me. My last post: 


"Charles;


Thanks. I had never heard or read of burning corn before, except when folks left the popcorn bag in the microwave for too long.
Franklin County, VA, just to the south of Roanoke County, VA where I live, has been noted from time to time for producing volatile liquid corn products, but the burning happens once it is swallowed.







"


This was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the large amount of moon shining that has been practiced over decades in Franklin County, VA. Corn "likker" vs ethanol.

Yours,
David Meashey


I saw it and thought I had canceled comment. World will not come to end by second comment.


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

With most of the American commercial corn crop being GMO corn, I personally think that it is only fit to be burned or used for ethanol, genetically modified corn is not fit for human consumption. I've heard that corn burns pretty well in a pellet stove, and I know some of the pellet stoves are made specifically for burning corn, or a mix of corn and pellets. 
It would be interesting to have a pellet feed mechanism for the firebox of a steam boiler, it could be stoked by radio control, using a screw mechanism, like a coal stoker on a big steam engine. I don't know how practical that would be, but I'd bet somebody could make that work.


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Back on the subject of using wood pellets as solid fuel in a Gauge 1 boiler. It appears that if the boiler were designed for solid fuel, such as large grate area, good air flow, deep wetside fire box, a blower, grate that allows passage of ash, wood pellets would do the job. Real wood charcoal would work too. Maybe just burn real fast.


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