Try to make coal briquettes catch fire quicker

[Didi Yap]

Trying to produce sodium nitrate from ammonium nitrate and soda bicarbonate for industrial use. We produce coal briquettes but to catch fire is slow.

[John Cuthber]

Be careful about how fast you get them to burn.

What's wrong with using ammonium nitrate?
Also, sodium nitrate is rather hygroscopic.

[studiot]

6 hours ago, Didi Yap said:

for industrial use.

What industrial use would this be?

Gas pokers are usually used to promote rapid combustion industrially so this has never been a problem.

[John Cuthber]

28 minutes ago, studiot said:

What industrial use would this be?

 

6 hours ago, Didi Yap said:

We produce coal briquettes

 

[studiot]

15 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

 

 

Why would they wish to burn their product?

Surely the industrial buyer has gas pokers?

[John Cuthber]

2 hours ago, studiot said:

Why would they wish to burn their product?

There is a difference between

"They wish to burn their product "

and 

"They wish their product to burn"

2 hours ago, studiot said:

Surely the industrial buyer has gas pokers?

And so did my grandmother, but if you are selling to a market that does not  have access to gas, you might want to make your briquettes easier to light.

Why are you assuming they are selling to industry?

[studiot]

18 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

There is a difference between

"They wish to burn their product "

and 

"They wish their product to burn"

And so did my grandmother, but if you are selling to a market that does not  have access to gas, you might want to make your briquettes easier to light.

Why are you assuming they are selling to industry?

 

Are you suggesting that they currently manufacture briquettes that don't burn?

Yes gas pokers were a Victorian invention. But bottled gas is available pretty well everywhere.

Because they said so.

 

 

[John Cuthber]

13 minutes ago, studiot said:

Are you suggesting that they currently manufacture briquettes that don't burn?

No.

I'm observing  they make briquettes which catch fire  slowly

10 hours ago, Didi Yap said:

We produce coal briquettes but to catch fire is slow.

 

14 minutes ago, studiot said:

Because they said so.

Where?

[studiot]

11 hours ago, Didi Yap said:

industrial use

 

There are several thing the OP could do.

He has two marketing opportunities for instance.

No one who buy logs as basic fuel would buy ones which burned too quickly.
They buy miniature 'logs' as matchwood for lighting the fire.

In the same way, small pellets catch fire more easily since they have a large surface area to mass/volume ratio and smaller heat capacity.

So the OP could market lighting pellets and/or gas pokers and bottled gas supplies.

This would be far cheaper in the long run as well.

I am far from conviced that introducing extra incendiary chemicals into the main bulk fuel is the way to go.

Further all current furnaces are designed for maximum efficiency with current fuel types, not extra flammable ones.

Edited July 15, 2018 by studiot

[StringJunky]

7 minutes ago, studiot said:

 

This would be far cheaper in the long run as well.

I am far from conviced that introducing extra incendiary chemicals into the main bulk fuel is the way to go.

Further all current furnaces are designed for maximum efficiency with current fuel types, not extra flammable ones.

If the charcoal has an inbuilt oxygen supply, then it also has an inbuilt flammable ability and in a sealed container could be very dangerous.

[studiot]

2 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

If the charcoal has an inbuilt oxygen supply, then it also has an inbuilt flammable ability and in a sealed container could be very dangerous.

Especially if you add potassium nitrate and sulphur to it.

 

[StringJunky]

Just now, studiot said:

Especially if you add potassium nitrate and sulphur to it.

 

Indeed.  They would be an accelerant and a half.

[John Cuthber]

1 hour ago, StringJunky said:

If the charcoal has an inbuilt oxygen supply, then it also has an inbuilt flammable ability

Did it somehow escape your notice that charcoal already has an inbuilt flammable ability?

Somewhere between a fuel with no nitrate- which is hard to light and gunpowder which is too easy to light, there may well be a mixture that's satisfactory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma

 

Studiot;

I didn't ask if the OP had used the phrase "industrial use"- he plainly had.

I asked where he had suggested that the briquettes were for industrial use.

 

 

It seems to me that the OP has an  industry that makes + sells briquettes- quite possibly to domestic consumers/ householders.

Their customers would like a product that's easier to light.

One way to achieve that would be to incorporate sodium nitrate into the briquettes.
And he's asking for a process to 

12 hours ago, Didi Yap said:

to produce sodium nitrate from ammonium nitrate and soda bicarbonate for industrial use.

Now, as it happens, I don't think that's the best way forward, not least because ammonium nitrate might do the job just as well (or badly) as sodium nitrate.
But that doesn't mean that the briquettes are sold to industry (they might be, but as has been pointed out, industrial furnaces often have other mechanisms for lighting them).

So, does anyone have any reason to show why I'm mistaken about my interpretation?

And does anyone actually have an answer to his question- how does he make sodium nitrate?

 

[StringJunky]

17 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

Did it somehow escape your notice that charcoal already has an inbuilt flammable ability?

So, it will light in an oxygen-free atmosphere will it?

[John Cuthber]

1 minute ago, StringJunky said:

So, it will light in an oxygen-free atmosphere will it?

Do you know anyone who lives in an oxygen free atmosphere where such a question would be important?

Or are you just not paying attention to this bit?
 

22 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

Somewhere between a fuel with no nitrate- which is hard to light and gunpowder which is too easy to light, there may well be a mixture that's satisfactory.

 

[StringJunky]

1 minute ago, John Cuthber said:

Do you know anyone who lives in an oxygen free atmosphere where such a question would be important?

Or are you just not paying attention to this bit?
 

 

Never mind.

[studiot]

38 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

Did it somehow escape your notice that charcoal already has an inbuilt flammable ability?

Somewhere between a fuel with no nitrate- which is hard to light and gunpowder which is too easy to light, there may well be a mixture that's satisfactory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma

 

Studiot;

I didn't ask if the OP had used the phrase "industrial use"- he plainly had.

I asked where he had suggested that the briquettes were for industrial use.

 

 

So, does anyone have any reason to show why I'm mistaken about my interpretation?

 

 

 

No one has said your interpretation is not correct, and you are as entitled as anyone to have one.

Mine is different, which is not suprising since although couched in pretty good English the OP was woefully lacking in detail.

 

But that is not reason for you to attempt to deny me my interpretation or lay into my comments the way you have.

 

Furthermore I ask you can it be said that the OP has a successful briquette making industry if he needs this boost?

Nor have I precluded the sale to domestic users, the old 'phurnacite' nodules are/were as much  for domestic as industrial consumption.

 

I still stand by my comment that users want an efficient, but long burning fuel after ignition and that adding accelerants willy nilly is not the best approach.

 

[John Cuthber]

So, once again,

3 hours ago, studiot said:

Because they said so.

Where?

 

8 minutes ago, studiot said:

Furthermore I ask you can it be said that the OP has a successful briquette making industry if he needs this boost?

Quite possibly. 

It's not impossible to light briquettes- just a PITA.

If his were easy to light he might have a USP.

And, it's plausible  that he might sell two sorts

Easy to light- for starting the fire and

ordinary- cheap ones for keeping it going.

 

In which case he might be very successful

It might be an idea to wait till he comes back with more information.

Unless he lives somewhere very dry, the tendency of NaNO3 to go damp is going to be a big problem