Biomass Furnace "Burns Anything"

Biomass Furnace Burns Anything ENERGY Alternative Fuels If you need to dry crops or large amounts of other materials a biomass furnace from King Coal could save you big bucks Company president Mike Robb cites one customer who cut his propane bill by 90 percent He switched from propane to burning green wood chips says Robb There are vast opportunities for using alternative fuels that are readily available For example an average sunflower producer can capture enough screenings to dry all of his crop The new furnace is designed specifically as a combustion unit for use with driers The company is making a variety of furnaces producing one million btu s on up Smaller units are skid-mounted with larger ones permanently installed Our smallest unit has a footprint of only 8 ft by 12 ft says Robb That size unit can produce up to three million btu s Height will vary depending on output desired Key features to the design are the stoker and the computerized controls The stoker brings anything an inch or less in diameter into the fire bed Once there the material ignites and burns with the ash falling off to be augered away for later use as a soil additive The controls monitor combustion and adjust flow of feedstock into the fire chamber as well as airflow for an ideal air/fuel ratio The controls maintain required heat production regardless of the type of feedstock or external temperatures There is no babysitting the system explains Robb With its computer controls an operator can check the system from a laptop at a remote location His only responsibility is to see that the fuel level is properly maintained The prototype unit developed for demonstration at the factory has a steam boiler on it to pull off heat Robb sees most units for agricultural applications transferring the heat directly to driers using heat exchangers mounted in the driers Even the stack gasses are cleaned and routed back through the system to capture the heat Corn producers can use cobs from the crop to dry the grain Cobs would simply have to be ground to size Screenings from sunflowers wouldn t even have to be ground he notes While Robb estimates a farm-size furnace would run from $80 000 up to $300 000 depending on output While propane burners cost much less he points to fuel costs as more than making up the difference over time At $1 50/gal propane a million btu s costs $16 37 Sunflower screenings selling for $30/ton produce a million btu s for about $1 65 Robb says the company is also working on adapting the unit to produce syngas for on-farm energy production using farm-produced biomass Contact: FARM SHOW Followup King Coal Furnace Corporation P O Box 2161 Bismarck N Dak 58502 ph 701 255-6406; kingcoal@btinet net; www kingcoal com

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