[Terrapreta] [Gasification] small scale charcoal making design

[Thomas Reed]

Dear Jim:

But fire on the top, fresh wood on the bottom is best of all and gives a 
good yield of charcoal (20-30%) PLUS a very combustible and very steady 
operation, since each layer of wood has to heat the next one below. 

TOM REED     BEF

jim mason wrote:
>> Here's the instructables method of feeding the smoke back into the fire:
>> http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-some-Charcoal/
>>     
>
>
> here is a nice design for a small scale retort type charcoal maker.
> this is an improvement on the classic 55 gal drum charcoal retort as
> the volitile gas out pipe is buried in a wood fire, so the smoke is
> burned even before it is flammable by itself.
>
> the smoke problem on charcoal makers is during startup, when the smoke
> is mostly steam, and thus not flammable.  you need to vaporize all the
> water out of the wood before the gas quality will get reasonably high
> and burn.  in practice, there will nearly always be some combination
> of steam and tarry pyrolysis smoke.  and the transition to an
> adequately energy dense gas to burn can be long, and the smoke
> produced voluminous.
>
> a retort design like the above is much more controllable than a "fire
> in the bottom and raw biomass on the top" design.  such are famously
> smoky.  properly started, this design can make charcoal without nasty
> smoke.
>
> better insulation, flue gas control, and temp sensors could be added
> for controlled temp char making.
>
> jim
>
>
>   

-- 
ÐÏࡱá

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