poplar burning black?

[woodlumn]

any idea why poplar would cause thick black smoke to come out of my owb?

if it was just moisture, wouldn't it be white? this is weird.. when I burn pine or oak or hickory, everything is nice and clean - just a puff of white smoke when the combustion cycle kicks back in. but with the poplar, it's dark and heavy.

the wood goes a long way though, and has no problems getting the water up to temp, despite the wood's low btu. I came into a huge free load of the stuff last year and have a pile to burn through, but I don't like doing so if it's going to continue to cause the dark smoke.

any ideas what would cause this?

 

[avalancher]

I dont know what species of Poplar that you are burning, but the tulip Poplar around here gets a fungus in it that makes it smoke black when you first light it off, but diminshes after you burn off the surface of the piece of wood. What does the wood look like?Is it all black on the outside of the wood, especially the wood without the bark?

 

[woodlumn]

yeah, it's most likely tulip poplar (we've got a lot of that here). I'll have a look when I get home, but it may be pretty dark where there is no bark.

the smoke is very dark for the first few cycles...not sure if it burns off eventually, but I'll pay attention to that next time.

I've found a few texts online that say the poplar burns "choking black even when seasoned."

 

[laynes69]

Sounds to me like it is releasing too much wood gas for the system to burn up. That results in smoke from the exhaust.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

:agree2:
Sounds about right to me, to much fuel trying to burn without enough air. Happens when the wood is to dry too.

 

[J.W Younger]

any idea why poplar would cause thick black smoke to come out of my owb?

if it was just moisture, wouldn't it be white? this is weird.. when I burn pine or oak or hickory, everything is nice and clean - just a puff of white smoke when the combustion cycle kicks back in. but with the poplar, it's dark and heavy.

the wood goes a long way though, and has no problems getting the water up to temp, despite the wood's low btu. I came into a huge free load of the stuff last year and have a pile to burn through, but I don't like doing so if it's going to continue to cause the dark smoke.

any ideas what would cause this?

dark smoke may be creasote if i burn a lot of dry smaller stuff it sometimes puts out black smoke from the cresote buring off the sides and roof

 

[cuttinscott]

Fuel Rich just like a carb set too rich it will smoke unburnt fuel




Scott