With coal and fuel oil shortages converting heritage steam loco to a pellet feed system can't be that hard. Here in wood rich New Hampshire we have huge silos full of wood pellets next to our schools running power and steam. Also we take grocery store waste and brew methane gas using anorobic digesters.
It sounds like an interesting idea but it may not be very practical. Consider that most steam locomotive fireboxes were designed with a specific grade of coal in mind. You would probably need to rebuild the firebox in order to generate suffficient steam from a lower grade of fuel.
One of the beauties of the steam locomotive is as long as you've got something to burn in the firebox to generate heat you've got steam and you've got power. It's one of the things that kept steam alive for so many years in developing countries.
Wood pellets would probably work in small steam locomotives with appropriate firebox revamping, whether they would work in big steam like 4014, 1309, 611, 1225, and others is problematic. I have my doubts, but I could be wrong.
The catch about 'pellets' is that they can't be pellets of typical stove-use size... those just blow up the stack, even more effectively than R-r-r-r-r-osebud coal or that weird UP subbituminous. As much of the development was then intended for stationary once-through power boiler use, making the product suitable to feed the same way as typical pulverized coal was an advantage. It would be dubious at best (and history is full of attempts that were more or less lamentable at the end) to use such fuel in historic locomotives.
The most "correct" answer when the technology was hot a couple of decades ago was to torrefy the wood (essentially baking the volatiles and water out and reducing it nearly to carbon with interesting ash) and then co-firing it with suitable formed coal. The ash from appropriate species acts the same way as a flux and sulfur absorbent as dolomite.
The approach I was looking at 'back in the day' was to form appropriate coal fragments or fines, or SRC, into the equivalent of washed 2" lump coal along with the appropriate percentage of torrefied renewable wood. The use of 100% renewable carbon in this style of fuel is certainly possible (for zero-net-carbon) and for most excursion use the fuel is only a small percentage of the overall cost -- something like 5% historically with 2-10-0 8055 in Europe.
A true zero-carbon fuel for large reciprocating steam locomotives would be an interesting thing to see.
Methane gas has begun to see demonization on the warpath to zero-carbon. Look for digesters, landfill, etc. to become more strongly regulated as the methane not effectively collected gets into the atmosphere as a 'potent greenhouse gas'. While I believe strongly that blue hydrogen with effective sequestration is going to be a big part of the answer... I find it isn't something practical for steam locomotives for a variety of reasons.
It is frustrating to see methane gas being vented and flamed off at Landfills instead of being genetating electricit. A large University produces enough garbage to run a small city via grease pit and methane production. Throw in methane powered fuel cells and your on to something.
Let me introduce you to "Yellow Coal"
YELLOW COAL?! - Talyllyn Railway - YouTube
BEAUSABRELet me introduce you to "Yellow Coal"
Interesting. I hope it works for them if they can't get any of that good Welsh coal.
There's a shortage of coal?
No, the environut cult will then say that burning anything is not acceptable.
"Don't you know the future is electric?
But, we're a heritage railway. It was steam powered its entire life. We're trying to preserve that experience
So we should allow you to pollute?
Even if we wanted to do so, we can't afford the cost to string wire and buy custom built narrow gauge electric locomotives. We'd go out of business.
Tough. You'll have learn that you need to make sacrifices to SAVE THE PLANET"
I think it was HL Mencken who said a puritan is someone who lives in deathly fear that somone, somewhere is having fun.
BackshopThere's a shortage of coal?
Yes, in Wales, no less
Watch the video
roundstick3@gmail.com It is frustrating to see methane gas being vented and flamed off at Landfills instead of being genetating electricit. A large University produces enough garbage to run a small city via grease pit and methane production. Throw in methane powered fuel cells and your on to something.
Yellow Coal seems appropriate for Britain, but I would remind everyone that the US was a pioneer in this field. The US had Blue Coal a century ago.
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