New Fuels, Where R they now??

Looking for some input from all you firebugs out there who have tried or are using alternative fuels in there stoves. Any info will be helpful to all of us who are thinking of changing fuels because of cost or maybe availability. So come on guys and gals, whats your thoughts on this subject.

agartner said:

BioBrick - using them this season almost 100%. Very impressed with their performance
EcoBrix - used them last year - not very impressed with their performance
Envi - Work well, but create a *lot* of light fluffy ash and are not very cost effective
Envi-Logs - Tried a few, really liked them, but couldn't find them in bulk. Like a BioBrick, only much bigger.

Is this what you were looking for?

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Looks like your up to date on all the pressed sawdust stuff,thanks for the feedback. I'm trying to think outside the box,a look at fuels that haven't made it to the market yet. Example; how about saw-grass ground and compressed into blocks,or some other types of bio fuels that mite be used for the average homeowner.

PastTense said:

agartner: I think the OP would also want information on costs.

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It would be helpful,also expences related to the use of such fuels.

EatenByLimestone said:

Junk mail - Have used it for a few years now and it burns great! Cost in annoyance is greater than wood so I try to stick with that.


Matt

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Now that's what I'm talking about! If you need a fresh supply let me know, i can send a truck load,especially this time of year.

daleeper said:

BeGreen said:

Got cow patties? Cow dung makes a surprisingly good fuel.

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It makes better fertilizer, leave it in the pasture.


I am interested in knowing what the OP is referring to with new fuels? I have not seen anything new, just old fuels in new packages.

Until an efficient way of making, delivering, burning these packages is developed, they will struggle to make it in the marketplace.

Pellets have made an impressive run, with alternative bio materials such as switchgrass being used is looking good, but the processing needs to be more efficient for it to be viable.

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Maybe "new fuels" was a poor choice of words. My interest is in fuels not yet on the market, what alternatives will there be in the future and how will they compare with the fuels we are using now.I'm not looking for augment, just a little discussion on the subject.

I can see where this discussion is going,and you make a good point,but paper and cow dung are considered old fuels. I'm more interested in some of the new bio fuels. My own personal experience came at the end of last years heating season. I had a chance to get hold of some seed-cake from a Jatropha plant while down in Fla., it wasn't much but enough to be able to test it in my stove, an Avalon 745.
I have been burning my own cut,split, stacked, and seasoned firewood for 30 years, and i would change over to this stuff in a heart beat. It comes in a form i can only describe as what looks like a goose turd, about 2 -3" long and half inch in diameter. It had a very faint earthy smell to it and was gray in color (not like goose turds).
Before trying the stuff I cleaned out the wood ashes from the stove so i could tell what was burnt and how much ash there would be after the fire was out. Placed in a pile about 3 hand-fulls in the stove and found it would lite with a long burning match. It took sometime for the pile to really get going but never did it smoke or need tending. After adjusting the air the flame turned blue and stood relatively small,but the embers had nice red glow. I have to say i was impressed!
As with everything there were some negatives, the burn time seemed a little short for the amount of fuel used, and the ash pile a little larger than i would like to see.I think the reason for that is in the fact that the seed-cake wasn't as compressed as it could be and had a lower density that that of sawdust blocks. The weight to size ratio seemed to be about one third that of a oak log.I only had enough cake to fill the stove 3 times so i guess the jury is still out on just how good this stuff really is, but for me, i now know that there are some alternatives to just burning wood.

agartner said:

Ah...ok...now I see where you're going. I came across a site in my travels touting "javalogs" - basically coffee grounds. Even a couple of articles how to make your own, the only thing I didn't like about the 'recipes' is they all used a mix of molasses (ok) and some kind of wax (not ok - to me anyways) to bind the log together. There's also a few home "newsprint brick" makers out there but they're not exactly new. I haven't seen anything on the hay/straw front, but it's an interesting concept. If you got a brick press I can borrow, I could give it a shot. That's essentially the problem with manufactured fuels - the gear to actually make it fairly costly.

(Added after above post)
Well I'll be.... http://www.strawlogs.co.uk/index.html

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Thanks Agartner for the information,never thought of coffee grounds,maybe i'll try it someday. The straw looks like a good idea but not sure about the amount of ash,could as much as paper logs,not so good. Well anyway, thanks for the feed back, just wish there was a little more interest in the subject. Maybe i'll go over to the pellet guys and ash the same question. They burn pellets,they will burn anything.

By the way what do you burn?