If you have access to large round bales

[Bob Rohr]

this could be good boiler. Poultry farmers around here are in a panic over LP prices. You could grow just the right crop to feed one of these. A hemp crop might be fun to burn

A couple farmers in nearby OK have been trying to build round bale burners. Not quite as high tech as this model.

www.herlt-holzheizung.de/engl/HSVE.html

hr

 

[SE Iowa]

I just sold some large round bales (1800#/bale) for a real bargain (seriously) price of $100/ton which equals about $110/bale. Don't know if it would be much cost effective to burn them? I couldn't get on the website link, how many btu's per bale? How long does one burn, moisture problems etc?

 

[muncybob]

The storage and boiler systems by that company look very interesting!! I don't suppose they have any U.S. delaers?

 

[Bob Rohr]

I just sold some large round bales (1800#/bale) for a real bargain (seriously) price of $100/ton which equals about $110/bale. Don't know if it would be much cost effective to burn them? I couldn't get on the website link, how many btu's per bale? How long does one burn, moisture problems etc?

We end up with 30- 50 large round bales every year from our "share" here in Missouri. i've sold them for as low as 28 bucks and as high as 80. It varys depending on growing season. Some years hay is hauled out of Missouri, some years hauled in.

I wonder if there would be a market for an "oily" crop grown just for burning? Sounds like this is already happening in some areas of the world. Or maybe grass to pellets and ship them to "pellet hungary" European markets.

On many farms round bales sit in the field until they rot away. Probably pick them up for free! Certainly is a renewable source. Some years we get 3 cuts from our fields.

hr

 

[Eric Johnson]

I was talking to a farmer at a graduation party a couple of weeks ago who has a Blue Forge (first owner I've ever talked to). He says that he routinely burns hay bales in his boiler.

As to the hemp, they're experimenting with that now in Sweden. Doubt with all the drug paranoia in this country that anyone will be able to grow hemp in the foreseeable future. I'm trying to imagine what the neighborhood would smell like to burn hemp in an OWB. Probably a lot like a Grateful Dead concert.

 

[Burn-1]

The storage and boiler systems by that company look very interesting!! I don't suppose they have any U.S. delaers?

Nope. They don't and I got an email from one of the principals of the firm and he said they weren't planning on it either.

 

[SE Iowa]

Eric,
I'll bet the hemp they're growing in Sweden is of the fibre-type. I'm told there were fields and fields of hemp grown in the 30's and 40's out here to make rope and other fibre products to support the WWII effort. There is literally millions and millions of volunteer marijuana plants growing in fields all accross the midwest. And yes it is the same kind they smoke except that the THC content is so low that you'd get more wasted licking toads than smoking a whole field of it. When I was a kid, we used to pick it when we were de-tassling corn. There is also water-hemp, which is a weed that all farmers fight. Same family as the above. No drug value for the stoners. (BTW my day job is a Pharmacist if you didn't know).

 

[taxidermist]

I have a friend in upper michigan that feeds his owb hay bales he said it works good.


Rob

 

[Burn-1]

this could be good boiler. Poultry farmers around here are in a panic over LP prices. You could grow just the right crop to feed one of these. A hemp crop might be fun to burn

A couple farmers in nearby OK have been trying to build round bale burners. Not quite as high tech as this model.

www.herlt-holzheizung.de/engl/HSVE.html

hr

Here's a video of a 200KW Herlt Biomass boiler from a chicken farm in Germany. They went from 50,000 liters of oil/year to 500 strawbales/year. It has over 13,000 gallons of heat storage. Pretty cool. There is a mix of English and German speech but it's pretty easy to get a good idea of what's going on.

The same user has two other videos up on this same plant.

Herlt Biomass plant 1

Herlt Biomass Plant 2

I think the one I posted first is actually the third video but there doesn't appear to be any real order to them.

 

[JustWood]

New Holland farm equipment has a round baler for biomass. I saw it on you tube baling willow for the purpose of burning in these stoves.