My friend, I have never even heard of these sources, much less having access to them. However, another RyPNer just gave me a set of 10 ICS steam locomotive booklets, all virgin copies of WWII era correspondence courses, so at least I can play catch up. I'd submit the lessons, but there is nobody at the REB to grade them...

Checking out the UP 4014 is a lot easier for me --- Ed showed me the burner, but I'll have to ask about those tuyere gizmos. Once again I am grateful to all of you who have helped me and continue to do so.

“Steam: Its Generation and Use” is periodically published by Babcock and Wilcox (the boiler company) and there are many editions. I don’t recall seeing anything about bagasse in mine (not sure which edition, but bought new in the early 1970’s) so you may need a later edition. I do recall my college’s library had a copy of the 37th edition from 1955, and it had a section on N&W’s “Jawn Henry” STE, not included in the edition I have.

Bagasse firing (as well as HRSGs with the entire shell populated with tubes) are covered in the 35th and 37th editions (1956 and 1963). I see multiple copies available on eBay tonight for well under $20 shipped. I will have to dig to find mine but send me an address and I'll loan it to you.

Fellas, You both have done plenty enough for me already. I believe you've given me all I need to hunt up a copy for myself, rather than paying postage both ways on a borrowed copy (which might disappear in the mail). Thank Youse Guys Very Much !!!!

You know, they chunk up hickory or apple wood for barbequing. The same machinery could be used to cut up regular old firewood into 2 inch cubes. The chunks could be handfired with a shovel just like coal. You would probably still need a pinhole grate and an arch like the pellet burner in Germany. Obviously, it would only be good for short runs with a small engine.

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The whole point of both pellets and smoker chunks is to maximize the extraction from wood stock. Pellets are made from sawdust left over from other wood product production. The stock for "smoker chips" is wood too small to cut into furniture, lumber, baseball bats, etc. Mesquite is a different creature--it's small and stocky, making it largely impractical for large-scale wood products (but excellent for smokers and craftswork).

Out here in central Arizona, county public works employees who have to cut trees and clear roads end up with a steady supply of mesquite and other wood chips just by holding up a box or bucket to the wood chipper output! The roads department also ends up with MOUNTAINS of mulch from such clearing, so much so that they are often compelled to give it away by the multiple truckloads to willing ranchers just to eliminate the spontaneous-combustion hazard!

Now, if only someone could find a way to make the gawd-awful "Tree of Heaven," the bane of most Northeastern railroads and cities by now, more readily burnable..........

In all seriousness -- if the 'biomass' can be mulched, it can be torrefied by the usual methods... after which it can be consolidated and briquetted just like any other 'sawdust' or leftover switchgrass stock or whatever.

You wouldn't burn prime hardwood any more than you'd burn Georgia fatwood; you'd be shoveling forever, with massive flareups only for a comparatively short time, and you don't want to know about the ash issues -- those with a wood-burning fireplace of any size will know. That's a major point of the torrefaction.