burning cotton seed

[smirnov3]

Hi, this is an oddball question (My specialty)

has anybody tried burning cotton seed in their stove?

I don't even know if its available in retail quantities, but it seems like the sort of thing that would burn well (and could be cheap, since it's a by product)

 

[St_Earl]

my first thought is of the oil in the seed. surely would burn well. but would it leave residue in the stove, motor impellers, vents etc...?

could that turn into a hazard for fire somewhere in the airway you wouldn't want it?

then you'd need a screen for the burnpot i would imagine. fine enough for cotton seed and it may be prone to fouling.
would an auger even be able to move bits that individually small?

just off the top of my head thinking here.
no experience with anything close to this.

 

[Normande]

I can't believe that we're having a discussion on cotton seed on a heating forum.
1. Cheap would be a good question as they are highly prize as cattle feed and very greatly buy season and crop year.
The last I heard they were around 350 a ton bulk.
2. Second you would have to find out if they were delinted or not. Size would not be a big problem as they are about the 3/16" in diameter, having burned them in fires before they have a tendency to " pop" as the oil heats up, lightly rolling them to crack the seedcoat would be a good idea.
All that being said if they are cheap enough and will feed through your stove burn'm

 

[Normande]

Fuzzy cotton seeds 'as we call them here' tend to stick together and don't flow real well or at all plus thee can be large balls of fine lint or fibers in the bulk loads, a real PITA even when handling with large bucket machines. Delinted whole cotton seed flows much better but looses the fine fibers we want for feed and is more money than fuzzies, haven't checked that price lately, we now have a third option here called free flowing whole cotton seed, it's used mostly in the feed mills in specialty mixes but it was about 40 bucks a ton more. The lint burns real well like fine hemp twine if you have ever burned that. I've only burned it while cleaning up around the farm and barn. Baler twine make a great fire starter, especially the untreated stuff.
Free flowing is fuzzy cotton with a starch coating so the seed fiber don't stick to each other it's not delinted

 

[DexterDay]

Hi Guys,
You bring up some interesting points and I will cover what I know to try and keep the discussion running.

Hi Normande, we are in Australia so have wildy different prices. For example wood pellets retail for $700/ton.
Cottonseed is only worth $150/ton as there is a giant glut of it. The delinting is an issue and I fear they will not have been at that price. This is where we will need to do more research.

Hi St.Earl, seed size is unlikely to be a problem as we run the oilseeds as part of a mix so it is carried by the other ingredients. WE can burn a canola seed mix without any problem except the seed is too valuable. Gumming issues are controlled by carefully adjusting the ratios.

The cornstove has a lower combustion airflow than pellet stoves so that help with finer fuels and we only have auger problems with overlength pellets. I am concerned that if we cannot get our hands on delinted seed it won't run or go up the auger and Normande do you think this linted seed would burn anyway? I don't fancy sitting around pickin the stuff off just so we can use it!

Thanks guys, hope to hear from you again.

Cheers,
Darron.

Welcome to the Forum Darron... Lots of good info there.

What type of stove are you running? There is a feature called "Signature" that you can set-up and provide all the Hearth related items you have.

Again, lots of good stuff you posted above. Welcome.

 

[DexterDay]

Wow...... All good stuff. Sounds like you have been burning for quite some time..

As for the profile changes. Just click on your Screen Name at the top right hand corner of the page.

(Yours would say. / Chickenman - Inbox - Alerts - Logout). Click on your Screen name and from there you can add a Signature line, change your preferences, etc.

Again, welcome to the Forum. You sound like your gonna bring a lot of Multi Fuel experience, to the table.

 

[Normande]

Had a thought this morning, crush the whole seeds for oil/ bio-diesel production then pelletize the rest for fuel/ feed we already due that with a lot of oil seed products here

 

[smoke show]

Interesting for sure...

Blowhard???

 

[smoke show]

Stick around. Your alright.

 

[DexterDay]

Stick around. Your alright.

I agree..... Seems like a good dude that actually knows his Chit (unlike us ).

 

[Normande]

Funny, your government is trying to stop it and ours has been encouraging it the last few years. I can see why safflower and canola wouldn't work so well that way, but cotton is enough different physically it might work, if oil is not useful then maybe just pellet the as whole seed and let the pellet reabsorb the oil, I seen extruded soybeans suck the oil right back up after pressing. Pelleting would deffinately help with the lint issue

 

[Normande]

Cherry pits are becoming more popular as fuel, they say that there is btu's in a ton of cherry pit vs corn or wood pellets I've never used any of themas I have an oil boiler I'm looking at replacing. A freind has a corn burning furnace and he mixes 2 parts corn to 1 part hard wood pellet for the best results. California would be the olive growing region is the US.

 

[DexterDay]

Yep cherry pits would be much the same. Not many of them out here though.
Pellets would be cheaper than corn in the US?
Pellets are around $150-200/ton in the US aren't they?

Pellets range from $169-$350 depending on location and quality of Pellet.

$175-$250 is a good average in my area. Thats $5 a bag at its highest.

Our Corn is quite high right now. Because of advances in Ethanol, the price is much higher than years past. Corn per bag (50 lb bags), is about $6-$9 for semi clean corn. Making wood pellets a much cheaper and viable fuel source at the moment.

 

[St_Earl]

nutshells are also used.
member snowy rivers here uses them and gets them damn cheap.
she lives out in my home state of oregon.
they grow hazelnuts (filberts) on a large scale there.

 

[AbetterChimneynm]

Pecan pellets were popular down here for some time and just faded away.

 

[Normande]

Wheat 7.50/bu
Corn 6.7/bu
Pellets/245/ton of 40 lb bags
Diesel 3.40/g off road
Gasoline 3.48/gallon
At your whet prices just burn wheat, but I was looking at a saw dust pellet pto driven machine not a lot of capacity maybe 2 ton/ hr, but not real expensive, I get why you don't want to pellet it just may be you best feeding option, just have to market the pellet under a specific brand. Yes I know one more headache. Another thought with the cotton seed and shells maybe just screening and rolling them in same speed rolling mill or crimper and mixing with wheat for flow would work.

 

[Normande]

Chickenman, hope you don't mind me bouncing ideas around I know they seem a little redundant sometimes

 

[DexterDay]

The cost of Propane in the U.S varies greatly on region. Heck.. Sometimes within the same state it fluctuates more than $1 a gallon. We paid around $3 a gallon (when we burned it). And spent about $3,600-$3,800 a yr in heating cost.

My worst Winter was almost 5 ton (prior to installing wood stove). So pellets would have to go over $700 a ton to not be a viable option to me. I also see the whole process as a hobby (cleaning, hunting for fuel, watching the fire, making sure its running as efficient as possible, etc). So even if it was close to the same $$$? I would still burn pellets.

I installed a Pellet furnace and a Woodstove last season (Nov). The addition of that helped to cut down on my pellet consumption (wood stove). I burned 2.5 ton last season and about 3-3.5 cord of wood.

The furnace works almost to well. I only run it below 25° and then run our freestanding Quad upstairs, when its above 25°. I always run the Woodstove to help reduce pellet use, but when I run the furnace, is when I really benefit from the wood stove. I didn't hook up the cold air return on the pellet furnace for one reason. I can get it 90° in the basement with the wood.. Then when the furnace blower kicks on, it sucks that 90° air from the basement and distributes it through the duct work, to the bedrooms above. If I dont have a fire going in the woodstove, then it takes away from the efficiency of the pellet furnace. But with a Wood Fire going, it adds to the efficiency.

Here are a couple pics of my stoves (you showed me yours? Dont take out of context)
The Quad, then the Pellet furnace, the 17 yr old Englander 25-PDV, and the new Englander 10-CPM (set-up in shop now).

 

[smoke show]

Flame seems lazy. just sayin.

 

[DexterDay]

Hi Guys,

I'm back
Here is a link to my new video showing a modified stove running straight pits

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See what you reckon.

PS Has anyone got a Wiseway video yet?
I'm really hangin out to see one in action.

90 degrees F. here today so you guys must be warmin up your stoves.

Cheers,
Darron

No video from Wiseway.

That flame looks to be an average flame for burning pellets. My Quadrafire has a pretty violent burn. There is no way of manually slowing it down either. Has High, Med, and Low and with each step, the convection and combustion blower step up or down in speed..

Here is a video of my Quad burning pellets. No sound in this one. I have a couple others on my YouTube Channel with sound. One I took a couple days ago and you can hear how the Burn pot whistles when air comes through it. Quite a bit of air coming through the holes in the pot.

Your video was quite informative. Thanks for sharing.

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[Northwoodneil]

Darron, just a thought on the dryer. A spiral airway would give you a longer drying time in the same lenght pipe. I'm thinking of an auger configuration like the ones used to fill grain elevators. The auger wouldn't need to turn just let the material being dryed spiral around it from one end to the other. It would be something like a minature corn dryer. Probably be a hollow shaft in the middle of the auger for your heat source. Just a thought. Welcome aboard, Neil

 

[DexterDay]

Always love your videos.. Lots of good info and insight into different fuels.

 

[DexterDay]

Yeah. The last 2 Winters have been very Mild. To say the least....

If it's gonna be cold? Might as well be freezing!! I like it ti he cold in the Winter and HOT in the house.

Congrats on the new line of stoves. Looks like a winner with the new control panel.

 

[Bioburner]

North Central part of the US was very cold without having any warm spells(above freezing)January-March and a very cool beginning of the growing season. Now in a drought but very close to harvest of beans and corn with wheat being average but rust free and premium straw. If it can be fed through an auger I'll try it. Trying to get sugar beet pulp pellets to try.

 

[jtakeman]

Trying to get sugar beet pulp pellets to try.

Very interesting, Keep us posted if you do try some.