[Gasification] Grinding charcoal

[Pete & Sheri]

Isn't it pretty wasteful to grind charcoal?
  We use it for smelting iron, albeit only in small amounts, about 300 or 400 pounds in  a 7 or 8 hour day.  But, you get a LOT of fines which are pretty useless unless you also have a briquetting plant.  I also need to make coke chunks smaller to use in my blacksmith forge.  I get "4 X 6" grade and break it down to about 3/4" cubed.  Our group once rented a gravel crusher to reduce the stuff in size, but all that happened is that the crusher made a lot of dust and got plugged up.

I chop the bigger chunks to size with a hot cutter.  (Others would call it a sort of Hatchet)
It is obviously a lot of work.
Better to start with the correct size stock, I'd say.

Pete Stanaitis
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