[Terrapreta] Farm Scale Batch Charcoal Furnace for Homestead or Farm

[AJH]

On Mon, 7 Apr 2008 10:12:06 -0500, David Stewart wrote:

>No. Didn't mean to take it off list, just new to the whole concept and
>wasn't sure that I would be responding to you directly if I put it on
>list.  Please feel free to post anything you write on the list and I
>will endeavor to do the same.

OK I've copied the conversation to [terrapreta], although it's all a
bit upside down now.
>
>I'm guessing that most of the wood would be "lop and top", if that
>means branches and the like.

Then you'll need to decide how to get that down to a size that will
fit in the kiln, bearing in mind bigger pieces take longer to dry and
pyrolyse.
>
>On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 8:42 AM, AJH <ajh at sylva.icuklive.co.uk> wrote:
>> On Mon, 7 Apr 2008 07:28:07 -0500, David Stewart wrote:
>>
>>  >About 200,000 btu is the size of the furnace that I've anticipated for
>>  >the house.
>>
>>  I think 200k Btu/hr is about 60kW(t) so fairly modest. Also oil and
>>  gas fired furnaces tend to run for shorter periods, so you can have a
>>  wood fired device running more nearly constantly and have a smaller
>>  power. Having said that I'd guess we could have a pyrolyser no more
>>  than 1.2m by 1.2m (4' by 4') for the actual reactor. With half the
>>  energy being left in the char this equates to about 23kg/hr (50lb/hr)
>>  of bone dry wood.
>>
>>
>>  >Fuel would be primarily wood.  It's what we have in abundance in the NH.
>>
>>  Sizes are an important consideration, would it be solid billets,
>>  lop&top or woodchip?
>>
>>  Did you mean to take the conversation off the terapreta list?
>>
AJH
>>
>>