coal in rocket stove

Hello, wondering if one could burn coal in a rocket stove mass heater.  I know coal is not an environmental fuel source.  I am trying to convince an uncle to let me build him a rsmh in his home and he currently uses coal for 70% of his winter fuel.  (we live in carbon county, utah)

It might be difficult to feed in fuel, but I bet it would work just fine.

You might supply some twigs, for use in pushing the coal into the burn zone, also getting it going, and perhaps eventually as the only fuel source if that turns out to be easier.

If you use a J feed tube, what about having the bottom of the J slanted towards the burn chamber so the fuel would fall into the fire?  Keep in mind that coal burns hotter than wood, so you'll need to make the parts extra durable.  And also will need to be able to remove the clinkers and ash.  (I think there would still be some even with the rocket stove.)

Kathleen

I'd be very sure of having a good draft before putting coal in a rocket stove, it would not take a lot of smoke back with cheap high sulfur coal to be a serious health risk

thanks for the feedback

no problem if you have the right air intake so you get a clean burn. if you try it make sure that your exhaust is in-fact Co2 and water and not Co. you will have to fiddle with the system a great deal to get the right configuration.

I know this is a slightly old thread, but do you think the process would work better starting out with a wood fire and slowly incorporating coal into it? I understand that it will burn hotter overall, but what are the dangers of using coal besides that? Worse deposits within the rstmh? Combustion is combustion, so I assume that if everything is set up properly there should still only be CO2 and water vapor at the end. I haven't built a rstmh, I'm still in the conceptual stage, but I would like to put a good variable design together and incorporate several different ideas for each part.

Perhaps I should just start a new thread. Anyways, thoughts?