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That don't look right

Thank you for showing the process! I’ll be sure to give it a try

If you insulated the outer drum and covered the top of it with only an exhaust / chimney to let the smoke out, then feed the gasses from the retort drum, you would get a much hotter fire and use less wood to make your charcoal. The gasses would take over. Ideally if you made three rocket stove entrances and welded director fins on the inside of the outer drum, you would get a good circulation of heat with very little wood needed to burn. Temperatures would be up in the 1000 deg Celsius range.

DANGER ! ! I realize this is a beginner. You've probably learned a lot since this first attempt. Look at the pressure with which that gas is flowing out of that bunghole. People, how much prrssure do you think is in that can ? ! TOO MUCH ! Could easily use twice as big of a vent hole(s). These retorts can explode if done improperly. EVERYBODY, watch several other videos so you know what you are doing before attempting this. BE SAFE. "I thought . . . " won't replace an eye or a finger, etc.

turn the retort insert upside down... and toss the screw in plug away... burn like you did, I promise more charcoal and less hassle

Im not quite sure how it works but my old man has a lid on the top of some sort and all the gas from the inner barrel will burn up and heat the whole barrel by doing this he can burn in the outer barrel 1 load of twigs and kindling and the fire will burn for atleast 3 hours or somthing crazy on full blast from the 1 load.

Your video tutorial is the best.

How long does the cooking process take. Is it true more than 10 hours

what do you think about gases especially, (CH4) freeing to the atmosphere, and how to manage this GHG emission?

Great video and I would recommend this method as well. Note that you don't need to quench with water using this system. We have built large ring kilns that can house up to 3 x 55 gal barrels. Recently however we have gone back to a single perforated 55 gal kiln inside a larger metal vessel (panels that bolt together) that is insulated and has a lid to snuff out the flames. Again, no need to quench with water. Simply remove insulated lid, unbolt one panel and remove 55 gal drum. For those interested search "black ripple biochar kiln"

You can decrease the cooking time by using the flammable off-gassing as more fire fuel by installing a 1" or larger "T" at the bung hole and redirecting the pipe back down under the 30-gallon drum. That's what I do. Same setup, except I built a reusable ring to tighten off the 30-gallon lid. I wait until the gasses coming out of the tee fitting will ignite, then drop a plug into the hole, redirecting that wood gas. Try it.

Any updates on this?

Turn the retort upside down with the hole down. The methane from the smaller drum will help cook ot

I liked this method, it's simpler and seemed to work well. Yes you can pipe the gases back down to fuel the fire and save wood but if you don't have the pipe or can't afford it these days... I've been thinking of one similar to your method. Thanks for the video.

There was zero "retort" in the process as the whole gas was wasted and burned. Your barbecue will sue you for wasting that flame, LOL. Good start anyway. make an update showing how that gas will be used to make charcola, or some cooking or heating. As a knowledgeable/useless youtube commenter , I feel pretty "entitled" behind my keyboard and I say as I please, as I cannot lift my finger neither afford to make a better version, so, ignore my comment if it sounds offensive.

Just flip 30gallon barrel with the vent down and those Vocs will help heat and allow you to use less fuel to make the charcoal.

This was an awesome video followed this one well compared to others. I'm just curious how much coal are you left with after the whole process is done.

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I'm surprised no one insulates the outer barrel... You should be venting downwards. OMG sealing it is a VERY bad idea. It should always be able to ventm

Jesus science is amazing

Off grid folks can clean there own water with this. Also if you use a stainless steel drip tube inserted in the bottom of the wood pile, the water will run out of the wood pile and would quicken the process.

It’s off gassing flammable gas which you wasted, should have fed that back in at the bottom to heat the fire!

Beautiful, easy to understand, straight to the point. Great job!

Thanks for sharing!!!!

Зачем вообще нужен древесный уголь? В чем его ценность? Где его используют?

Your losing all gas , it's not steam

Good job sir repost backwith inner bar upside down

👍👍👍👏👏👏

That's not steam that's wood gas! It's flammable!

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not a retort thats just a kiln retorts use the off gas to fire

Its a big tree for your axe lol .. thx for the video this axe seem to be bad ass

Great job. Thank You Loader. You check out what others did and improved it a bit. You must have watched the guy who welded a pipe on the side of the il barrel and filled it with wood and set it on top of an open fire. He go very good results. I'm sure you will to. You remembered every step. I'm at the end of the flammable gases just before you close off the air supply, but how will you smother the rest of the fire?

what do you use the charcoal for??? it seems like a waste of wood and heat

great vid

wat time?

I'm asking this a little late, but I got impulsive. Should I douse the fire once the wood gasses stop burning? I'm using a 55 gallon barrel with a 10" Chimney coming out the bottom. Pipe directing gases into the chimney. It's sitting on a fire pit/ stacked up pavers. I still have some smoke coming out of the gaps at the top, but the gas stopped burning about ten minutes ago. Basically, when should I stop feeding the fire? I think I should douse the fire a couple times to save the coals and also to insure it's all cooled off in the morning. I'd like to BBQ tomorrow.

it's Gass coming out

Direct those gases down into fire: use an elbow and some pipe

To burn the steam and fumes put the 30 gal. up side down and it will help you in the combustion

Nice Video thank you, By the way if you would just turn that little barrel upside down you would have that flame shooting out the bottom and heating ITSELF instead of blowing up into the sky. Don't burn good cordwood to maintain the fire around it. The moisture near the start will not hurt your heating fire much but when the good dense gasses start coming out your process will accelerate greatly with not much additional wood in your outer barrel. Just sayin

pro tip when recording with your phone video in landscape mode

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storing wood gas is very dangerous.

Very gooooood job eh. BTW, nice anvil, is it an Record??? Ü

Thanks to everyone who has commented. Yes, the gas could be reclaimed for a number of uses, but this was my first try and I wasn't even sure if it would work. I was happy enough to just have charcoal and not ash at the end!! There is a lot of fudge-work that can be done with the vent holes and other details. I've run this design one other time and the only issue I ran into was my inner drum burning through. The final yield looks like 2/3, but it was actually closer to just over half when I finally used it all. I primarily use this for metal forging. It could also be used for activated charcoal in gardens or even for water or air filter applications.

Recover the gas and feed it via a pipe to the lower fire box. The process will be more efficient.

man look at all that good gas waste!!!! dude use that for running some engines!!!

How many, and what size holes did you put in the bung? It looks like 2- 1/4" holes maybe?? What was the total yield? It looks to be about 2/3's full, is that correct? And what do you do with the charcoal dust and small pieces? Do you have a way to make briquettes, or do you just discard it? Nice video, I think I'll try it.

i build gasifiers........this vid gives me a good idea....... I can see that it would be possible to make char and at the same time recycle the wood gas for using in propane and natural gas devices (cloths dryers, on demand water heaters, cooking stoves ect)