I was emptying my cubees, saving some of the conatainers for glycerine storage/disposal (KOH)and compressing and bagging the others for trash collection.

I started tearing up some of the carboard boxes to use for starting fires in the fireplace, and I got to thinking about ways to try and burn some of this glycerine.

I have read about glycerine logs, and was always concerned about the logs melting as they heat up and getting everything in the fireplace "gooey".

Started to think about the cardboard, soaked in glycerine, maybe compressed somehow. Maybe even sawdust mixed in. Use some type of mold like PVC pipe and a plunger in an attempt to compress the stuff so it would bind together. Maybe even some type of cheap burnable binding agent (which I have no idea of). I hve read about the use of cardboard milk cartons, but those are rare here in the US nowadays (plastic is the norm).

Sure would be nice to find a way to make some logs that don't get runny when heated. I am aware of the need to demeth and burn the glycerine at proper temps.

Who is burning glycerine in the fireplace? What are the problems you encounter? How about creosote buildup?

My fireplace is a sealed wood burning insert that consumes outside air, so the only exposure would only be when replenishing the fire and cleaning out ashes when cool. Any ideas? KD

There are people here that burn the glycerine in logs. The method is to pack the glycerine on milk containers with sawdust and then introduce them to an already hot fire. A smouldering fire won't work as the glyc will give off the toxin
acrolein.
I have tested burning some glycerine in a turk type burner and it does a fine job with a little methanol (recovered of course) as an ignition promoter.This test was conducted outside,although bringing it indoors would require a more secure method of burning, such as the logs you are planning on.
If you have plenty of sawdust and plenty of empty 1 litre milk cartons this may offr you an option worth exploring.

I have access to sawdust from work, and we give our daughter only organic milk which usually comes in paper cartons.

My wife's job leaves us with tons of leftover carboard boxes at the house.

I think I'm going to try lining a box with wax paper and filing it up with sawdust and glycerine when I get the fireplace going.

Also, for a binder, most "logs" you buy at the store are recycled wood pulp with a binder. They just put a pretty paper wrapper around it to look nice.

I don't see to many cardboard milk cartons in my area. I have found them for OJ, but they have the plastic pour spout.

I would still have a problem with the glycerine running all over as I use KOH and my glycerine is runny.

Two schools of thought: some type of agent that can be mixed with the glycerine to turn it into a geltin or a some what solid state. Gelatin? Plaster of Paris? (sorry, that what I meant by "some type of binding agent"). Some type of binding agent to cause the glyc. to set to a solid state.

The other thought is a pan that can contain the glycerine and be placed in the bottom of the firebox. Once again, just something to prevent from running all over getting in between and under the firebrick. But that would end up as just a fill it once and wait for the fire to go out before filling again. Thinking out loud. KD

There is only so much weed killer I can use, and weeds are not a problem when winter gets here. KD

KD, what you are suggesting is a type of pot stove arrangement. It works, but you will have to devise a method of continual flow as it burns as adding cold to burning glyc will cause it to volcano if done in any bulk amounts, so a slow continual flow would be best.Leave the methanol in it, of course,as an accelerator. Maybe hooking up a gravity fed mist spray into the "bowl" would work, dunno. I have no experience in this stuff other than having toyed some with a turk type burner outside, so take it for what it is, an opinion.

kd460, I burn the glycerine logs in my indoor woodburner. I first remove the methanol via distilation than mix the glycerine with sawdust in a bucket, then pack it in brown paper bags which are cheap. I assume if one were to mix it to runny, with to much glycerine it may seep through the bag, I haven't had this problem. The logs burn very much like wood but a bit hotter. I have noticed no build up in the chimney from this practice. It seems that there are a few clinkers in the ashes afterwards which are no big deal. Good luck dave

I hope people don't think Glycerol doesn't burn really well.
We are considering making fire logs by compressing sawdust or chips from a log peeler with glycerin. My idea is a roller mill with the pattern cut into dies, either pellets , or small logs. Both, my buddy who owns the saw mill and I have fair fabrication skill for heavy equipment.

On a different note, we live in the forests of Northern New Mexico, as part of our forest maintenance we burn slash from pruning and thinning. A few weekends back we burned a slash pile near the house so I could incinerate fifty 1/8 full WVO cubbies. They have been building up from a Summer of processing 750 gallons of biodiesel. Basically a bunch of empties plastic 4 1/2 gallon containers, I have recycled as many as I could handle. This included washing them and pushing the empties on everyone who came to see my Appleseed processor. Anyway I wanted to see what they did when I threw them on a super hot fire. I was impressed. Hardly any smoke and the plastics globbed up before it melted. It worked so well I chucked a (one) full cubbie of waste particulate on the fire. It was full of the accumulated crap I didn't put in the processor. At that temperature it burned too, although it was still burning the next day. My yard smelled like a Chinese restaurant for two days. The point is I found out under what conditions the waste from biodiesel production disappears.

Now I will focus on using the byproducts in a wood burning stove. After living in the rough for thirty plus years it will be a luxury to burn a liquid in the wood stove.
Brian Rodgers

did you resolve issue of how to solidify or package glycerine for burning? What about mailing tubes? Or better yet cores from a carpet wholesaler, cut to length, All our paper products come in on 3" cores which are pretty standard, and would bae thrown out by any one selling broadloom.

I've added candle stubs to the hot glycerin before pouring it with the sawdust to make some pretty solid glycerin logs before, but my glyc has all been NaOH catalyst and de-methed so I'm not sure if it would help that much for KOH glycerin.

I don't burn much, mostly in a fire pit in the back yard. I just mix glyc and saw dust in a bucket and throw scoops of it on the fire after it gets going well and has a good bed of coals.

I used the OJ containers kd460 mentioned (fabric softener refills come in the same style cardboard container). The plastic burns fine itself. I used junk mail run through a peper shredder as a binding agent. These were 1/2 gallon containers, and I tried varying amounts of KOH based glycerin in them. I found 1kg too be too much - too runny when in the fireplace. I think 800 grams worked out pretty well.

Horn

I work in an office were everyting is shredded daily. I'm going to collect some of the shredded paper and see what kind of ratio I can get to burn cleanly with newspaper as the "log".

quote:

Originally posted by Raften:
I don't burn much, mostly in a fire pit in the back yard. I just mix glyc and saw dust in a bucket and throw scoops of it on the fire after it gets going well and has a good bed of coals.

Raften,
I was thinking of doing this same method.
about how much glycerine do you add to a bucket of saw dust?
Do you have a glycerine/sawdust ratio that I can start with?

Danny