Wood pellet burner...Can it burn saw dust?

[MS-310]

I got a older Wood pellet burner for free yesterday and been thinking will it burn saw dust? Any one here played with any thing like that.

 

[mga]

how long will saw dust burn for?

how much heat would you get out of it?

 

[LarryTheCableGuy]

The first thing that came to mind was dust explosion. Not a good thing.


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[Mountaineer]

In the pellet burning world they call it "fines". Fines don't burn well and can muck up the works (jam or wear the auger). Remember that there pellet stove burns with forced air. It'll blow sawdust right outta yer burn pot. I rekon it won't even make it to the burn pot before it's blown away.

 

[MS-310]

you all have very good points, but we burn saw dust 365 days a year with a down draft blower boiler, I will mess with it and if I get it working I'll send some pics....Any more input?

 

[habanero]

I wonder if it would matter what particle size saw dust you're talking about. I agree with Mountaineer in that fine sawdust probably wouldn't work terribly well in a pellet stove. Coarser particles might have a chance, though. With a free stove you're not out much to try.

The down draft blower boiler you're talking about is likely purpose built for fine sawdust is why it works so well. The dust is probably introduced into the airflow as it enters the combustion chamber-almost like gas in a gasoline engine. The dust is fine enough that it doesn't need a ton of dwell time in the chamber to combust completely. A pellet stove, on the other hand, isn't that far removed from a normal woodstove in that you're introducing solid particles that have to sit there and combust with air flowing around them. If the particles aren't heavy enough to stay put in the burn pot, they won't have a chance to combust.