Inferior coal.

[henchy3rd]

Is it me or has anyone else noticed the lack off quality of smokeless coal is lately.
Takes ages to get going, loads off green/ grey ash which indicates more cement is being added( which is cheaper & leads to acid rain) & doesn’t get to heat like it used too either.
When the fire is dying down , I could Chuck some more on & it & would catch.. not any more.
Everyone is saying the same thing, even the coal man said he thinks they’ve been messing with the ingredients.
Supertherm used to be the best, but even that’s gone down the pan.
I’ve tried to find a contact for more information, but to no avail.
So any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[Nice65]

Apologies for going immediately off topic, I saw the thread header and it reminded me of something I was discussing with a steam engine bloke I know who now has to run his engine on poor quality coal imported from Russia. He says it’s rubbish, constantly messing with his machine. A quick Google of Russian coal turns up many stories, this is one.

Steam railways 'will run out of coal', industry warns

Heritage attractions are in "jeopardy" amid a shortage of English coal, industry warns.

www.bbc.co.uk

Good coal burns relatively cleanly, but if it’s running out or cannot be extracted for whatever reason, then the alternative is going to be either poorer quality or cut with muck.

For what it’s worth, we also import vast quantities of wood chip via ship from North America and elsewhere to fire biomass generators.

 

[Robson Valley]

As a note added in proof, Canada sells unit trains (a mile long) of hopper cars of ultra dry wood pellets. Those are being used all over Europe. We have 18,000,000ha dead bug wood and untold square miles of dead fire forests now. Pellet prices are as good as you will ever see. Lots cheaper than coal for the BTU.

The catch is, some of the companies are adding sand to get the pellet weights up. That **** burns OK but the ash load is impressive. I got caught up in that, just for home heating one year. We did experiments with 1C pellets, stirred up in 1 liter of water. That crap was 10% sand. I can't heat my home with sand.

Me? what do I know. Burned only 100,000lbs pellets over 10+ winters.