Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXX, Dec. 1910: Federal Investigations of Mine Accidents, Structural Materials and Fuels. Paper No. 1171Wilson, Herbert M. (Herbert Michael)
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Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXX, Dec. 1910: Federal Investigations of Mine Accidents, Structural Materials and Fuels. Paper No. 1171
Wilson, Herbert M. (Herbert Michael)
Building materials; Civil engineering -- Periodicals; Coal mines and mining -- Safety measures; Fuel
The tests of different coals under steam boilers have shown the
possibility of increasing the general efficiency of hand-fired steam
boilers from 10 to 15% over ordinary results. If this saving could be
made in the great number of hand-fired boilers now being operated in all
parts of the United States, it would result in large saving in the fuel
bill of the country. Experiments which have been made with
residence-heating boilers justify the belief that it will be possible to
perfect such types of boilers as may economically give a smokeless
operation. The tests under steam boilers furnish specific information as
to the most efficient method of utilizing each of a number of different
types of coal in Government buildings and power plants in different
parts of the country.
The tests in the gas producer have shown that many fuels of such low
grade as to be practically valueless for steam-furnace purposes,
including slack coal, bone coal, and lignite, may be economically
converted into producer gas, and may thus generate sufficient power to
render them of high commercial value.
Practically every shipment out of several hundred tested in the gas
producers, including coals as high in ash content as 45%, and lignites
and peats high in moisture, has been successfully converted into
producer gas which has been used in operating gas engines. It has been
estimated that on an average there was developed from each coal tested
in the gas-producer plant two and one-half times the power developed
when used in the ordinary steam-boiler plant, and that such relative
efficiencies will probably hold good for the average plant of moderate
power capacity, though this ratio may be greatly reduced in large steam
plants of the most modern type. It was found that the low-grade lignites
of North Dakota developed as much power, when converted into producer
gas, as did the best West Virginia bituminous coals when utilized under
the steam boiler; and, in this way, lignite beds underlying from
20,000,000 to 30,000,000 acres of public lands, supposed to have little
or no commercial value, are shown to have a large value for power
development.
The tests made with reference to the manufacture and combustion of
briquetted coal have demonstrated conclusively that by this means many
low-grade bituminous coals and lignites may have their commercial value
increased to an extent which more than covers the increased cost of
making; and these tests have also shown that bituminous coals of the
higher grades may be burned in locomotives with greatly increased
efficiency and capacity and with less smoke than the same coal not
briquetted. These tests have shown that, with the same fuel consumption
of briquettes as of raw coal, the same locomotive can very materially
increase its hauling capacity and thus reduce the cost of
transportation.
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