[Terrapreta] Farm/compost biochar

[Dick Gallien]

Still looking for suggestions.  Kevin suggested I use this tank to char the
huge piles of brush, which I have refused to torch, as many compost? sites
do here.   It is a 30' X 10' dia. 1" thick, over 36,000 lbs. rail road tank
car, which I can top load with the old log truck.  A 11' dia. fuel tank is
hanging from the top of the rr tank, so the 6" can be filled with insulation
(any suggestions as to the cheapest, most effective high temp insulation?).
The lid would be air tight, I can make a 4' X 4' door at the base, so as to
unload with an extended bucket on the Bobcat and planned to funnel from
about 6' above the base, down to 4' dia.at the base.  How would you run this
as a retort? I could have a removable stove as the 4' X 4' door, but I don't
understand how the stove is exhausted and how the wood gas is returned to
combust in the stove.  At 76, I'm eager to get started, before the party is
over.  Kevin asked,  Why do you REALLY want to do this and I can only say it
would be for the inner satisfaction of seeing it work, making good use of
this usually wasted tree waste, giving others ideas and improving the soil
on this little farm. Please forward this to anyone else that might be
interested. Hope to hear from you.  Dick

On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 10:54 AM, Dick Gallien <dickgallien at gmail.com>
wrote:

>   Am looking for suggestion. I've had a community service farm compost
> site, open every day, from dawn until dark, for 16 years, operating on an
> honor system. Three times I've hired a 650 hp tub grinder, the last time was
> 7 years ago, costing over $10,000 and there is no market for the grindings.
> So I have 7 years of accumulated brush, trees and stumps.  Over 90% of tree
> waste in Mn. is torched and I joke that torching is against my religion.
> Biochar and terra preta allows me to bend, but not break my religion. I'm
> looking for the simplest way to char large quantities of brush and larger
> wood, to use on this farm, as a demonstration, to keep from being buried in
> it and because I have a hangup about rich, living soil.
>
> Must immediately reduce the volume of brush, so
> a few days ago I dozed old brush against a 15' high bank of wet, packed
> biomass. When it was blazing I dozed (Kamotso, with 11' blade--little bigger
> than a D-6) the pile from above, completely burying it, except for a few
> wisps of  smoke still coming from the pile, 5 days later.
>
> Obviously not the answer.  Can stack brush 8' high with the jawed backhoe
> or much higher with an old log truck.
> Leave a pole in the center as a chimney, to be pulled later.
> Cover the pile a few ft. deep with wet biomass and light it down in the
> pole hole.  Would appreciate any suggestions
> from your readings or experience.
>
> Once the huge piles of brush are cleaned up am wondering about something
> like the Adam retort, except much larger.  My Trojan loader bucket is 8'
> wide, so could make a rectangular trench into a bank 10' to 12' wide, for
> loading and unloading into the 425 bu. spreader.  I can get 2'X2'X6', tongue
> and groove concrete bunker blocks delivered for $35 at .  Don't know how they
> would hold up to the heat.  I use them double stacked to hold hogs in, which
> I raise totally on food waste.  Same question for pre-cast concrete, self
> supporting bunker silo walls. I can put either one into a bank, 8 or 10'
> high, with dirt flush to the top, so the sides would be airtight.  Have the
> end of a 42' wide building, made into a bank, the bank retained by 16' high
> precaste bunker silo walls,--- but what to cover a larger Adams retort
> with--, some crude, top loading, movable wood burner as part of an end
> wall???
>
> Thanks for listening,  Dick
>
> --
> Dick Gallien
> 22501 East Burns Valley Road
> Winona MN 55987
> dickgallien at gmail.com [507]454-3126
> www.thewinonafarm.com
>
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-- 
Dick Gallien
22501 East Burns Valley Road
Winona MN 55987
dickgallien at gmail.com [507]454-3126
www.thewinonafarm.com
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