Gasifier - Paper Incineration

[jebatty]

This may be old news, but I have about 100 boxes of old office files which need to be shredded or incinerated. Tried the incineration today with about one ream quantity of office paper, placed on top of wood in the firebox after gasification well under way. So far as I can tell, the paper burned fine, but it produced lots of ash. And at one ream or so at a time, the paper makes neither a viable fuel nor a good product for incineration.

 

[flyingcow]

I'm on a local school board..I was hoping that burning paper would work well. :coolgrin:

 

[Tony H]

I wonder if it would help if you rolled them tightly and taped them with paper tape like little logs ?

 

[jebatty]

I think the issue is less the burning than it is the quantity of ash and the limited quantity that can be burned at one time. One file box has the equivalent of 8-10 reams of paper. At 1-2 reams per firing of the boiler, it would take a minimum of one week per file box, and since I don't fire the Tarm every day, it could take a month or longer, depending on the outside temperature. The hope was an easy and inexpensive way to get rid of lots of paper. Heck, I've stored some of these files already for more than 20 years, might as well keep them until I turn to ash.

 

[pybyr]

I'd tried burning paper in my prior hot air wood furnace, and ran into some disappointing results

paper, other than newsprint, is most often coated with clay or other stuff to make a smooth surface that'll hold ink well

that plus the density of a stack of sheets and its effect on surface-area/ mass/ air ratio, makes it a dud to burn.

the clay, etc modifiers are part of why you get more ash

however, run it through a shredder, and suddenly the surface area part of that equation changes in a way that makes it burn a whole lot better

I have access to ridiculous amounts of paper, and am going to play with the shredded stuff for use in getting a good initial light off of my gasifier

I think I'll call it the Fawn Hall method...