Hi Werner,
I don’t know if dousing with water is good or not because I never do it that way. I can see some advantages like less dust and fast quenching for better yield. I know Ray Menke does it that way - and he makes more charcoal than the rest of us put together - but he lives in Texas where it is hot and dry. It might take forever to dry up here in Michigan.
Werner,
For immediate use, getting the char wet would not work. In my case, we have had years of drought and very hot weather so once the charcoal is sorted, screened, dried, and run through a charcoal grinder, and then stored for years, it doesn’t seem to know it was once wet. My daughter was here last week for a visit, and was amazed at the amount of charcoal in bags in my barn. (Yesterday I was loading my 182nd 55 gallon drum with dead limbs to be made into charcoal.) I store the finished engine grade charcoal in sealed barrels, and on very dry, low humidity days I remove the barrel lids (and leave them off for a while) to see if any water vapor wants to escape. A freshly loaded barrel will have some condensation on the bottom side of the lid. Most of the white plastic feed bags in storage contain sorted/sifted but unground charcoal. Most of the bags have a note inside with the date and type of wood, such as Mesquite, Oak, or Mixed. Here is a photo taken about 3 1/2 years ago.
Wow Ray, I quit counting back when you were at 150 some barrels. You are a mini OPEC (or CPEC)
More discussion about how to build a continuous system of charcoal production.
I like the way Don does it loading the top of the hopper and draw product from the bottom.
But a lot of heat is wasted.
This is process heat and somehow if it could be insulated and controlled more char could be produced with less CO2 lost to the atmosphere.
Higher temperatures could speed the process too.
But how would you build such a thing I wonder?
I played some with a pocket rocket boiler.
Also made charcoal in a wood stove continuously, shovel char out.
Hi Jeff,
I watched the video and was hoping to see more of the stove. Maybe like a short walk around? You label it a boiler. Also a rocket stove. Does that mean it burns hot all the time with an open air intake?
I second that… I can’t quite figure it out…
It started out as this.
http://www.messickstove.com/products/ds-machine-boilers/specialty-boiler-151-bucket/
Then I hacked it into a pocket rocket. Maybe this weekend I could drag it out side and do a video.
I have a 2000 gallon tank I plan on using it as an out building for a cone kiln. I’ll use the bottom of the above stove. Later add heat exchanger above the cone.
