Outside picture from my “school”
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Is that center tower in the building for natural air conditioning? What are your average daytime temperatures?
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I was admiring that as well Don. Passive heating and cooling is something I have a great interest in.
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actually its the top roof for the big gasifier, but all the heat is “lifted out” by the design
Average temperatures at the moment; night time around 25ºC and now 08 am its 28ºC getting up to 40ºC during the day
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sad but so thru…
I don’t have time to come over to the USA DOW meetings, yet
To learn how it should be done…
But…:
I do invite anybody to come over here and teach me over a few cold beers how to do things…
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Koen; I see your wife stopped giving you the “thumbs - up” sign and is now giving you the “piece sign” or the one with both hands looks like she is copying Pres. Richard Nixon’s sign. TomC
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National Television… energy from Bamboo charcoal by…
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Looks like you are making some good inroads to the mainstream over there. Even though I can’t understand what they are saying it was nice to see your getting more good press.
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Koen, Wow, Really great quality video! Very positive presentation! 
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Nice video. I had to watch it twice, because I wanted to see how the bamboo is handled. At the beginning, the bamboo plant is being watered with a hose. Is it necessary to water the bamboo plants in your area? Also, it looks like the joints of the wood are cut out and used for heating the retort. Only the thin straight pieces are shown coming out of the retort. Did someone split these before putting them in the barrel?
Last year I ordered obtained 3 different types of bamboo plants and put them in my garden. Nothing seemed to happen with the plant until a few weeks ago when a dozen culms popped out of the ground and are now over two meters in height.
If I can get these plants established, I plan to transplant them to another fenced garden on my land, away from my 16 cows. Whether or not I can get enough to make bamboo charcoal remains to be seen. It seems to live underground as one big plant!
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I can dream of bamboo, that’s about it. I believe there are varieties hardy to zone 5, which thanks to climate change I may see here in time. I doubt they can handle frozen soil, maybe I’m wrong. Putting bales over them for the winter might work.
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Outstanding progress Koen!
I am enthused to see that your efforts are receiving such recognition, and that you appear to have initiated a nucleus of local innovation and development.
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The acceptance of the concept of micro gasification varies greatly from one community to another.
Here I often hesitate to talk about this technology in my entourage.
Oil is still relatively cheap for North Americans
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Sadly true Thierry. 
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Gary, regarding bamboo- I live in west central Wisconsin and we have friends who live close by who have an “infestation” of bamboo. I don’t know what species it is, but I think they planted it as a garden ornamental a few years ago. And now it is threatening to take over their yard and the edge of the woods.
Isn’t wild buckthorn the midwest USA equivalent of bamboo (from the invasive standpoint)? You can have all of mine for free. Just come and cut it down. It isn’t even hollow! I think I have at least 10 tons .
Pete Stanaitis
There are two basic styles for bamboo. The first spreads or runs. you don’t want this. There are other varieties that grow in clumps, that you will have far fewer issues getting out of control. It can take several years and a lot of work to get rid of it.
There are other non-related species that are called bamboo but not really bamboo that are similarly a pain to get rid of Japanese knotweed is one of them (it has hollow stems though).
I thought i just read where you essentially girdle it, then apply roundup to the girdled area and it kills the rhizomes. I would probably cut it down, then just hit it with roundup as soon as it starts to leaf in the spring.
I have enough issues with grapevines. I don’t want to deal with bamboo. 
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We have Japanese knotweed here in Maine. A truly invasive plant that requires years of dedicated effort to be rid of. I use the herbal capsule form of it for part of the herbal protocol to deal with Lyme disease, but gave up trying to reduce the roots to a form I could use. Hard as hardwood.
It is not substantial enough of a bamboo shoot to bother with for charcoal.
Yup that Japanese Knott weed is all over my property here. It is wicked hard to kill. A buddy of mine works for DOT and when they do a highway project they are required to dig it all up and bury the dirt no less then 6 feet or it will come back and as an invasive specie the state has to clean it up from any job sites. He hates it when they find a patch of it because he knows it will be a big budget overrun before he even starts on that section of road. Not to mention what they run into digging 6 feet down at random spots in the state…
I don’t know if Japanese Knott weed or suemack is worse but I would take grape vines over either one at least you can eat the grapes or make jelly.
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grapevines cover everything. They pull down stuff you want. The grapes are mostly seed. It is kind of like kudzu. Sumac just covers area, and trees can get started in it. It doesn’t spread nearly as fast. It grows on nutrient poor soils and I think it may also clean up toxins. they use it a lot in old coal mining areas where nothing else will grow. It is pretty on my list of unwanted shrubbery. No thorns, not poisonous, doesn’t knock down trees and fairly easy to walk through.
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