Food for thought…
How to make a faster, cleaner more efficient air blown charcoal maker.
Years ago we heated out reverb furnaces cold air with checkers and alternated back and forth to recover as much heat as possible to reduce the amount of coke we needed to melt.
Maybe a smart fellow could design a reverb kiln that uses stone or fire brick checkers to preheat the air and mix it with off gases from the carbonizing process to improve the fuel efficiency and reduce the residence time needed to fully char the wood in a single batch.
Ignore the metal pot and oxygen lances…
Just look at the checkers and the heat flow/recovery.
Yes I guess that’s simpler. We called them checkers in the steel mill because they looked like a brick checker board from the top, the idea is the same however heat recovery.
The less wood you burn for process heat the more charcoal you have left at the end
It is an interesting concept. I don’t know if it works so much with charcoal. It is an exothermic process, and it releases a lot of burnable gases that can be used to fuel the reaction once it gets going. On top of the burnable gases, there is also like water, alcohols and tars. Look at making wood vinegar, and see all the crap that comes off. Even if you just use the burnable gases, you have plenty of heat if not an excess to run the reaction and you probably have enough extra to warm up the next barrel anyway… And some of the gases are like methane, you probably shouldn’t release into the air and should just burn them off.
I am not sure how helpful it would be. It MIGHT be very helpful to dry out the next batch. But you need to use a heat exchanger, that is kind of like a water jacket. You collect the heat in like a 2" pipe and use 4" furnace ducting, the air runs in the opposite directions, andmaybe a small fan to pull air through to dry out the next batch. But you have to be careful of where the condensates go.
It does seem like a waste of heat. I 100% agree. Matts design is using the excess to heat a room, which seems a lot less wasteful.
Most of the ones I have seen actually use the gas to light a fire under the next one in a closed retort system because there is an excess of burnable gas produced with the charring process. I have seen large scale ones do some heat recovery especially if it is especially true if it is coupled with electric generation.
Finally found my way. Took the central pipe out of the hookway and now it can run unattended.
The plan is to intgrate this in the heating system for the house. This is in a separated barn, with some venting, but maybe give it some extra toughts.
It is working. Some small improvements and then no more tinkering on this part.
Next step some grinder. Anyone a good idea, KISS if possible. Minimum effort, max output?
Edit, Gary Gilmore is Mr Charcoal. He tried everything. TLUD is the most easy way , so will his grinder way…
The one I remember from that video was a simple rig with a built-in swing-away crane mast / hoist. It held a horizontal 55 gallon drum retort that could be changed while hot , and a masonry enclosure that preserved the heat from the fire pit in in a controlled way. There were some clever details. So self explanatory…(good luck trying to keep it all proprietary!)
Your choice, Beau. Good luck!!
Some keep their business because it’s proprietary.
Some keep their business because nobody else wants to do the work.
I work at a General Motors dealership and we have a mechanic here that specializes in Cadillac North Star engines because everyone hates working on them. He is never starving for work.
The Northstar mechanics are a special breed. The Northstar fans are anothing kind of special. That’s the flat rate mechanic in me speaking, best use is a boat anchor unless you like driving with blown head gasket every day you own
Enough worked this week, a little time for playing. Inner barrel has holes in the bottom. Space around inner barrel is filled with woodcrap. Lighting was easy today. Maybe the wood is dry. No rain for a week and it is just about to start. If I wanted to try this, tonight is the night.
I had to play with secundairy air for no smoke. Interesting.
Outer pipe is 700 mm and for insulation and air preheat. Still getting very hot, auw.
