King Coal Furnace Corp.

Source: Energy Digital

Date :18/02/2008 01:56:20

Mike Robb, founder and owner of King Coal, believes that recent rise in oil prices means we should look closer at the advantages of using computerized stokers, which burn coal and/or wood. Energy Exec learns more

Written by Ian Armitage and Produced by Michael Alexander Jones

Formed by the highly ambitious Mike Robb in 1980, King Coal Furnace Corporation, based in Bismarck, North Dakota, has been providing heating solutions to large commercial and public organizations ever since. It has 28 years of experience and has sold equipment from Fairbanks, Alaska all the way down to the south of Chile. As if that wasn’t enough, in recent years King Coal has become the standard for solid fuel firing in area schools.

“We don’t do much of anything else here but big solid fuel burning equipment,” says Mike, who is delighted by the growth his company has enjoyed. “What makes our product line unique is that very few companies come close to doing what we do. For instance, in the Midwest we are singularly the biggest manufacturer of stokers and nobody can match us.” This means King Coal has a booming order book.

Why a coal stoker might be good

Who was it that said coal, as a source of generating heat commercially, was dead? Okay, politicians on Capitol Hill might be targeting coal as a way of winning votes, but with the recent rises in oil prices, modern computer controlled stokers burning coal and/or wood must be considered, says Robb, to “control escalating costs and to secure supply.” The current cost to generate heat from traditional methods such as propane, heating oil and natural gas, he continues, “is a lot higher than coal, so why not use more coal?”

The problem, according to Mike, isn’t actually using coal or other solid fuels for combustion; it’s that certain political figures are creating what he calls “the impression that coal is a dirty fuel and burning anything should be outlawed.” Trouble is, he says, the United States, as much as any other country in the world, rely on cheap energy – you don’t get much cheaper than coal.

“Okay, people are worried about the environment, but we understand so little about climate change. The simple fact is,” he says, “the type of combustion that we are involved in today bears no similarity to burning coal in traditional power plants, so our environmental impact is very low.”

Mr Robb, passionate about this issue, continues: “The overall efficiencies of power plants are poor; the combustion process is quite high, but the conversion of steam into electricity is extremely low. As a result, it takes a tremendous amount of coal to make electricity. The combustion process that we use is 80 percent efficient in terms of making electricity. It is like a grain of sand on a beach compared to power plant production. There really is no comparison at all.”

Indeed, King Coal’s coal fired equipment is designed to evenly distribute the fuel across the grate surface, which allows the fuel to burn completely and efficiently. These coal systems range from fixed grate with ash removal augers to large Chain Grate stokers with complete automated ash removal.

Mike believes that the gasification and proper combustion of coal or wood, or any other biomass material for that matter, is to “everyone’s advantage.”

Stokers for a variety of applications

Mr. Robb, a very interesting man who has a lot of local community support, especially from the Dakota Manufacturing Extension Partnership, went on to explain that King Coal manufactures stokers primarily designed to burn coal and wood products, but it has also designed specialty stokers for burning waste fuels from various industries including animal waste. “Our stokers have a variety of applications,” he adds.

He continues that King Coal “can design a complete system to fit within the constraints of an existing boiler room or simply design a retro-fit stoker to fit under an existing boiler. This is extremely beneficial to customers.” Indeed, King Coal can even layout and manufacture an entire new boiler house containing fuel handling, fuel storage bin, ash removal, and fans.

The role of computers

King Coal’s unique stoker combustion chambers are designed using state-of-the-art combustion analysis software that takes into account different variables including, BTU of fuel, combustion air volume, fuel moisture content, elevation of stoker, and boiler horsepower. “This assists us in determining the proper grate area, firing rate, and combustion volume,” says Robb. “Computers have been the single biggest development in this industry over the last two decades. Our computerized systems help create a very efficient fuel system that can even modulate up and down to meet the load demand.”

Where lies the future?

As far as Mike is concerned the future for King Coal is very bright in a market full of opportunities. “When you look at the price of other fuels, it is hard to think about using anything other than coal. World energy consumption is not falling and will rise significantly in the coming years thanks to a soaring population. I believe therefore that there is no way but up for this industry. People cannot afford to continue using the expensive fuels we use today. I also believe that if the trend to utilize more natural gas in power generation, like what is happening now, will cause havoc in the market.”

He feels that limited use of solid fuels in small applications like those King Coal develops is the way of the future. He dismisses environmental concerns as this new method is very clean. “I think there is tremendous opportunity in the smaller heating sector that we are involved in. There are plenty of regulations in place right now that prohibit people from making lots of smoke so you shouldn’t worry about the environmental cost. We are well within the guidelines and we get permits where required to operate our equipment.”

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