Burning Pallet Wood in a Gasifier

[machinistbcb]

Has anybody had much experience burning pallet slats in a gasifier. I found a great source on used hardwood pallet wood. Most of the wood is from the top of pallets and measure about 3/4" x 4" x 36". There is also still nails in the wood as well, that shouldn't bother anything should it ? I would plan on filling my Tarm about 75% full with the pallet wood a then a few chunks of split oak. Any advice would be appreciated before I pull the trigger and get about 10 cords of it.

 

[2.beans]

free is the best wood out there.

 

[rickh1001]

I agree there is nothing like free. Seems a shame to burn finished lumber though! We found a source of pallets, and built a 16'X25' addition on our house using the pallet wood for siding, then built a great woodshed with more of the same. Some pallet wood is almost finish grade lumber! Of course, if you have it, and can't use it for anything else, burning it is better than wasting it.

 

[machinistbcb]

Well, its not free. There asking $50.00 a cord. All the wood is already stripped apart and neatly stacked in 3'x3'x3' wooden pallet boxes. It will be perfect for me because I can keep all 50 boxes in my barn and just grab a lift of wood with forks on my tractor and set it right next to my boiler. Does any body think it may burn to fast and hot and I might lose some heat up the chimney ? I would love some feed back from people that have burned alot of it in there boiler before i buy it and fill my barn up with it.


Brian

 

[Dune]

Hey, MachinistBob Being a dunebilly, I've burned more than my share of pallets in quite a few woodstoves. It is first class fuel except for the nails, which are not a problem with stoves, and should not be a problem in your gassifier, as long as the temp in your combustion chamber is lower than the melting temp of steel(nails). So, if you have a steel firebox, you are all set. If you have a ceramic or firebrick or some other refractory material, Stack your first fire in reverse of what you said, mostly cordwood, few pallet scraps at the top. If molten iron is not an issue during burn time, then you are all set. Scrap nails are about $12 a bucket these days so you could recoup some of your fuel cost.

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

Econoburn heats their own facility using pallets.

I've talked them into doing some custom boilers to burn chips, as well.

Joe

 

[chrisfallis]

I burned pallet wood in my Tarm and found that it was a good source of heat, especially the oak boards. There is a pallet repairing / manufacturing place 5 or 6 miles from me and they usually have a few pallets in the parking lot stacked maybe 5 feet high with pallet slats. I would take them home and then slice them to stove length with a radial arm saw. It was production grunt work, and I hit quite a few imbedded nails, but I damn near heated my house with this "junk". I would burn pine when I could refill the firebox, say every two hours. I also threw in random construction lumber, including 2x4 cutoffs from a local truss plant. Oak slats were reserved for overnight burns. There is a lot of surface area with the 1x4 and 2x4 pallet lumber, so try and temper the fire with some cordwood or you will have a dangerously hot condition inside your boiler.

I love the idea of loading all the wood in large boxes and moving it with a tractor. I moved mine with big trash barrels and cardboard boxes for the little stuff. It was a lot of handling. My new planned installation includes a big wheeled cart that I can load from the woodpile and roll right into the boiler room.

 

[chrisfallis]

It is first class fuel except for the nails, which are not a problem with stoves, and should not be a problem in your gassifier, as long as the temp in your combustion chamber is lower than the melting temp of steel(nails). Scrap nails are about $12 a bucket these days so you could recoup some of your fuel cost.

My Tarm turned nails white hot. They would get soft and fall into the ash cleanout. I pulled them out of the ash barrel with a magnet and sold them to the srcap yard. You can fill a 5 gallon plastic bucket pretty quickly!

 

[Seyiwmz]

HI, I'm sure your TARM has similiar controls like my EKO gasifier. As long as the pallet wood is dry you will have no problems with overheat or going up the chimney effect. It's all controlled by the computer aka. BRAIN. I would jump on that deal if it's already cut and piled like you said. You could mix it with round wood to get longer burn times if you need. Later, Seyiwmz

 

[machinistbcb]

Thanks for the input guys. I am going to order 10 cords tomorrow, that will equal 50 3x3x3 boxes of the pallet wood. I really love a good deal and around hear you can't beat $50.00 a cord I dont know why the guy hasn't sold more of it.

Brian