Lol! Isn’t that the way it is?
I haven’t found a better way to make large quantities of charcoal than the flame cap method. The biochar folks are pretty good at it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=biochar+kiln&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwijlLTQ0Mr7AhU1HjQIHQ7VA3EQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=biochar+kiln&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgYIABAFEB4yBggAEAUQHjIGCAAQBRAeMgYIABAFEB4yBwgAEIAEEBg6BAgjECdQlgxYpBFg0xNoAHAAeACAAZ8BiAHaBJIBAzIuM5gBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=E2OBY-O-MbW80PEPjqqPiAc&bih=545&biw=1236
I don’t think the flame cap charcoal will ever compare with the retort made fuel for energy density or conversion ratios, but it is very easy to make and it’s naturally open cell so good for other things.
Here is Gary Gilmore explaining it in 2012!
http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/kalle-charcoal-gasifiers/529/6?u=chuckw
Just for example;
Imagine four 55 gallon drums burning brush to charcoal… fill them up twice and you have about 400 gallons. The rate they fill depends on the size of wood you feed them. If you have small branches, say under an inch, you can fill a 55 gallon drum in under an hour. If you feed them firewood sized pieces it will take a lot longer.
A simple fire ring that is 18 inches high and four feet across will hold over a hundred gallons.
Keep us posted on your char making furnace. That is a piece of the puzzle that would truly be a game changer. It’s not that its hard to do, it’s just any burner that is integrated with your house has a lot more safety and convenience demands placed on it.
I have a char making stove I built in my shop that works well. It uses the same principles as other flame cap burners, that is, an elevated edge of some kind that makes it harder for oxygen to penetrate to the bottom. It’s just a wood stove with the floor dropped down 9 inches below the draft inlet (you can make any stove into a char maker using this principle).
It has reasonable char conversion and as a bonus will burn huge rounds with reasonable efficiency. But you have to scoop hot char out to capture it…
