Coal-Water Slurry Fuel (A Good Oil Stopgate or on its own)

Hi I was just reading about Coal-water slurry fuel and I thought this might be something that would be easy for Charis to make and it would be a good liquid fuel that can be used in both boilers and in diesel engines (if and when we get them). And as Charis already has a huge amount of coal production and is only beginning to get an oil industry set up it might be a good idea to use this type of fuel.

It is also a very safe type of fuel.

Here is the wiki article about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal-water_slurry_fuel

captinjoehenry wrote:Hi I was just reading about Coal-water slurry fuel and I thought this might be something that would be easy for Charis to make and it would be a good liquid fuel that can be used in both boilers and in diesel engines (if and when we get them).

Who is this "we" you're talking about?

WE have diesel engines already and I have a car that runs on gasoline.

WE also don't live on Safehold AFAIK, let alone Charis. If YOU live in Safehold, how are you posting to a 21st century Earth internet forum?

He is using a mis-callibrated hyper relay, and not posting from the same universe you are receiving him in. It was in the vault under the books, and after 750+ years some of the settings have drifted a bit.

Next question?

captinjoehenry wrote:Hi I was just reading about Coal-water slurry fuel ...
Here is the wiki article about it:...

The Wiki page doesn't discuss the disadvantages of coal slurry; primarily is is very abrasive and tends to eat injectors -- especially for Diesels.

Another disadvantage is that it does nothing to abate the pollution problems of burning coal.

Coal Slurry does have some advantages for high-volume applications, but it just isn't as practical as that Wiki article implies for general use.

Question from a non-engineer. How difficult is it to convert a coal burning engine to a liquid (oil) fuel. I know the fuel handling systems would have to be completely changed but I'm wondering if you would only have to change the burner units on the boilers? I'm assuming nothing would have to be changed in the steam handing systems.

EdThomas wrote:Question from a non-engineer. How difficult is it to convert a coal burning engine to a liquid (oil) fuel. I know the fuel handling systems would have to be completely changed but I'm wondering if you would only have to change the burner units on the boilers? I'm assuming nothing would have to be changed in the steam handing systems.

If you aren't terribly concerned about efficiency, installing oil burners in place of the coal grate and installing oil feed lines will convert coal burners to oil (or slurry) burners. If the system were designed from scratch or a "perfect" conversion was made, the size of the firebox would have to change as well, which might force some changes in the boiler as well.

I don't recall off-hand which fuel requires a larger firebox, but I know that some locomotives suffered a loss of power when converted from coal to oil because of firebox size issues.

Weird Harold wrote:

EdThomas wrote:Question from a non-engineer. How difficult is it to convert a coal burning engine to a liquid (oil) fuel. I know the fuel handling systems would have to be completely changed but I'm wondering if you would only have to change the burner units on the boilers? I'm assuming nothing would have to be changed in the steam handing systems.

If you aren't terribly concerned about efficiency, installing oil burners in place of the coal grate and installing oil feed lines will convert coal burners to oil (or slurry) burners. If the system were designed from scratch or a "perfect" conversion was made, the size of the firebox would have to change as well, which might force some changes in the boiler as well.

I don't recall off-hand which fuel requires a larger firebox, but I know that some locomotives suffered a loss of power when converted from coal to oil because of firebox size issues.

The oil fired boiler requires a smaller firebox, as the volumetric heat release of a turbulent oil flame is higher than that of a coal grate firing (assuming the same power Output).

Concerning CWS (coal water slurry), there are some issues, that aren't covered in the Wikipedia article:
- Milling the coal to small particles needs special mills, otherwise the abrasion will reduce the mills to rubble and the CWS will contain particle of the mill, which aren't good for the burner.
- The storage of CWS needs stabilizers or the coal particle will sediment.

Don't forget that hard coal is very close to being diamonds, as they are the same thing, carbon, just in a slightly different lattice arrangement.

dan92677 wrote:Don't forget that hard coal is very close to being diamonds, as they are the same thing, carbon, just in a slightly different lattice arrangement.

My grandfather died from blacklung disease. I'd always thought it caused death by clogging the air sacs in the lung. Does anyone know if the coal particles actually lacerate, or otherwise damage the alveoli or other lung tissue?

I believe - never discussed it with an expert, so this isn't certain - that the damage is a combination of 3-4 effects: clogging [the lung is a pretty good filter, after all], mechanical abrasion triggering acute inflamation, chemically-induced inflamation and actual cytotoxicity. IIRC, it's the cells of the epithelium that are most vulnerable to the poisoning, which aggravates the mechanical damage because the dust can't be cleared effectively.

EdThomas wrote:

dan92677 wrote:Don't forget that hard coal is very close to being diamonds, as they are the same thing, carbon, just in a slightly different lattice arrangement.

My grandfather died from blacklung disease. I'd always thought it caused death by clogging the air sacs in the lung. Does anyone know if the coal particles actually lacerate, or otherwise damage the alveoli or other lung tissue?