Reason you didn't get as much as expected: you placed the split wood horizontally with huge gaps in-between wood then sealed - you sealed in a stack of oxygen with the wood so it could burn away like in a regular fire. What you need to do is stack wood vertically next to each other absolutely minimising air gaps, pack as tightly as possible (bash them together with hammer if necessary) fill entire barrel (container - whatever) from bottom to top and then just do exactly what you did - high yield then, hope this helps
I live in Thailand and make a lot of charcoal. There are three main ways I learnt from the locals how to do it. I have a drum but it is much simpler, with one small hole in the lid and a perforated base. Takes too long to describe how I do it. The other way with really huge pieces like tree stumps, I use a big pit. It takes a month to cool down but can make up to five large sacks of prime charcoal. The simplest way though is to start a wood fire and when the wood at the bottom is glowing pick it out with tongs and drop it in water.
I suggest chipping the wood if that’s possible because it increases your surface area so you don’t get those big chunks that are half charcoal half wood. This also allows you to fill the tort more and you’re able to process more at once. If you do this don’t let it burn so long because much of your yield was burned already. By far the best design I’ve seen though!
Thanks. I've since done a few different experiments and have had better yield. My next set up is going to be welded on the bottom end and I'm going to use mud/clay to seal the chimney on top.
Different than my setup. I have a 30lb grease drum inside of a 55 gal drum. Charcoal wood goes inside small drum. Then it goes inside large drum upside down. Fuel wood goes around the small drum inside large drum. Have a couple sections of chimney pipe attached to lid. Air holes in bottom of large drum. Light and put on the lid. Gets a good draft going. You can tell when the charcoal wood starts to off gas. The fire intensifies from the wood gas. Have a lot of apple trees so have plenty of hard wood. Resulting lump charcoal works great in my grill and charcoal smoker. Am currently working on a charcoal brake rotor forge.
I have made three different size charcoal forges and a brake drum with two 3/16" plates in a slope to the blower hole has worked better than my others with a small fan and a dimmer light switch to control fan speed and I can tell you from experience that it is pretty efficient and gets hot enough to easily forge knives and machetes, swords, arrowheads ect. The one thing I've learned is to heat just enough steel you can work before it goes cold again and it's all experimenting would different steels to see how they move and how the structure changes in metal on a molecular level it's kind of crazy the way some steels react. I sure hope you make a forge it is fun to do and it is fun to move metal but something I didn't know before I started is charcoal does not need a ton of air, good luck and don't use aluminum anyting for a fire pot or anything like that the temperatures Forge reaches will melt aluminum easily and if you need more of a bowl shape fire Ash makes a great insulator just don't get it too wet just enough to make it look like Portland concrete mortar is more than enough and then set a heat lamp over it for a day or two and then burn a small fire in it to cure completely I sure hope my comment helps, one last warning though forging is addictive LOL be safe have fun Burns will happen just don't burn yourself too badly and get a thick pair of gloves
The water vapor phase and methane phase are about the same time length, and it's easy to tell when the water vapor phase is over (because flames start shooting out). If the flames continue for longer than the water vapor did, then there's combustion going on inside the barrel and you just have to stop the process. You won't have perfect charcoal if that happens, but it'll still be usable and it won't have all burned up.
Lol. Just did my first barrel and had the same results with some of it having a little wood left. I use the barrel inside a barrel method. I didn't have ash issues, but I clearly didn't get mine hot enough.
I just watched another video where they sealed the barrel with dirt and mud after the burn. They took the barrel off of the burner and stuck it in a hole in the dirt. Covered the top with a piece of sheet metal and covered it with dirt. Wouldn't take much more effort to add this to your procedure. Would solve the problem of air getting in. Really good video. I have a friend with a welding machine. Should be pretty easy to make. Not bad at all for a first run. At least you tried and you learned something. Thanks for sharing. Very cool.
I must applaud you for putting out this video it shows true character it is a nice refreshing change from the average if you were to seal that chamber more say with fireplace putty it would have worked better . Thank you for taking time out of your day and posting this video it was pleasant to watch
I have fond memories of riding through the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, specifically the Pamlico Sound surrounding Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville NC, and following my nose to some hidden gem of BBQ often down a cinder road through the tidal marshes, with no signs to point the way to the awesome food. People just knew where to go! Kind of "locals only". BUT one perfect day, instead of my nose leading me to slow cooked fire licked meats, I followed the smoke and learned something. It was how a family and their friends and neighbors ran, since the Reconstruction, a large former crab/shrimp "processing" shed turned into a "charcoal shack" where a family business survived by trucking in hardwood scrap to make charcoal to sell to mostly individual consumers and small BBQ joints vs large commercial accounts. Deciduous hardwoods don't exactly thrive in the conditions that are present in that region, so one couldn't just fire up the chainsaw and harvest from blow downs after a late summer hurricane.
I think you did well here. Looking through the comments i agree with some...completely sealing out the air as soon as you are done the initial "burn" does prevent charcoal loss in my tests. One thing i prefer to do is to use a TLUD (top lit up draft). I do this because i only burn the wood i want to make into charcoal and don't use extra to heat it like you are doing. As soon as my flames burn out from the initial gasification process i seal the container and prevent the charcoal from burning further. I think i have videos that will show you what i mean....if not still up i will make one on request for you. Keep experimenting
When your hot charcoal stopped giving off wood gas, the charcoal sat there and smoldered using the ambient air that came in through that large gap around your stack until there was not enough heat/ oxygen to support combustion.
This reminds me of when I was growing up in the caribbean. The natives made charcoal, as it was their preferred method of cooking. They would make a pile of branches, start it on fire, cover it with dirt and let it smolder for 24-48 hrs i believe. At that point they would pull off the dirt and let it die, or, they would let it burn for, 60 hrs i believe and then pull off the dirt and throw water onto it, and it would powder down to lime, which they used for whitewash etc
Where I come from we make it in the ground. Dig a ditch. Pack up the wood on top each other. Cover with leaves grass etc. Start fire in the front of ditch then cover with soil.
The quick and dirty method is a barrel at a 60 degree angle. Tight pack the wood and light a fire on top. I've heard it takes a couple of hours but the air flowing from the open top limits the oxygen to most of the wood. cover or soak to stop it. You get less charcoal but it's simple.
Wow, when you decide to make charcoal, you go to town on it. Good job. I probably would have filled a five gallon metal pail and sealed it and would've been satisfied with that, to make activated charcoal for filtering water.
I use a barrel and a half with a chimney mounted to the half barrel. Fill the bottom barrel (1/2" air holes in the bottom) with wood light the top of the fuel in the full barrel and then place the half with chimney pipe on top. That's a large rocket stove. The 1/2" holes in the bottom of the barrel will always be less intake air than the @8" chimney, causing a deficit of O2. The O2 supply will necessarily combine with woodgas from the top of the fuel and burn down to the bottom leave charcoal in its place. I have run a whole barrel of oak leaves as an experiment and the individual leaves are charcoalized but otherwise intact.
Baruc Barbers one 55 gal drum plus one 55 gal drum cut in half plus one chimney...I used 8" hvac ducting. The bottom (whole barrel) is filled with fuel to be charcoalized. Then the half barrel with chimney installed in top is fitted (by cutting alternate patterns and sliding together). Bottom barrel has 1/2" holes (mine has 20 or so) and is set on concrete blocks for an up draft. Light the top of fuel, then slide the top with chimney on. The heat going up the chimney pulls air in the bottom hole, but not enough O2 to completely burn. When all is mostly burned, pull off top with chimney put on solid top and take barrel off blocks. The solid top and covering of holes by ground contact stops the burn. Let cool and then collect a third of a barrel of charcoalized fuel.
I heard that if you don’t quench the charcoals when they’re done pyrolizing they can reignite and keep burning. But either way, very cool rocket stove retort!
A more even heat around the barrel should help. It seems like the wood at the bottom turns to charcoal first and starts to turn into ash as the wood at the top is just begining to change. You should also find a way to cover up all the gaps were air can get in when the flames from the gas die down. The charcoal will ignite and slowly burn if there's any oxygen. i saw big gaps between the lid and middle pipe thing. You should also cover the pipe when the gas stops burning.
There should be no ash. It would appear you have a leak somewhere. Also, pack your wood more densely, leaving as few open spaces between pieces. Real charcoal "tinkles" when broken.
Surface area and timed burning are your variables you must adjust to get proper yield. You can do test runs on few batches to get your desired results.
You left it burning. An there was oxygen, that pipe does not cute off the oxygen as soon as the fire went out oxygen rush back in an regnited the charcoal. You have an almost perfect set up but the pipe goes to the top an no farther. Onces you cook the charcoal your suppose to prevent oxygen from getting back in. In a sense smother it so fire can't start up. Just extend the pipe an make sure that you put a collar on the pipe and cap the pipe, those little holes allowed the oxygen back in an you lost your charcoal. An the heat was not evenly distributed. So you ended up with wood that was not fired enough. At lest you have done better then some. Thank You Loader.
My subsequent burns have become better. I've found that the CO2 produced from combustion actually puts out any fire inside the barrel. I'm going to make a modified barrel and try to make it more air tight.
@@KimballCody I compared your method with the one in /watch?v=_g6Q7RmxG0I - You use multiple holes for outlet of wood gas, while that other video only make one tiny hole. From my experience, some of those multiple holes may become inlet (instead of outlet) for air into your charcoal, which bring oxygen in. Perhaps that's what burn some of your charcoal. - He put the hole on top of the can, while you put the holes on the bottom of the drum (he used can, not drum, so it's kind of smaller scale than yours). The hole on top made him easier to plug the can as soon as the wood gas was exhausted.
Good video , i had read years ago that Henry Ford did not like seeing all the wood cutoffs or scraps not having any use so he wound up knowing a man by the name of King that had the idea of turning all the scraps into charcoal and then into brickets they went ahead and formed a partnership they called Kingsford and bagged the Charcoal brickettes Henry Ford. Would. Include a couple of bags with every new Ford car that was sold to promote taking the family to a outdoor picnic and use the charcoal to cook a meal I always smile whenever i see a bag of Kingsford charcoal thinking of that story. On how. Ford didnt like any thing. Going to waste or not being utilized every way possible
looks like your charcoal maybe ignited at some point? thats where all the ash came from. a better seal on the flue that sits in the fire pit or maybe drench the charcoal after a burn. interesting design though! Good work..
Your lid has a gap that makes oxygen to get sucket in to the wood, so you burn it UP instead of getting charcol. You culd fiks it with a weld or maby some dirt and water and make a paste ✌️ cool Setup, thinking about making something like this my self
@@KimballCody mud for seal is gonna be good 👌😎 ive just learn for my self when i tried smaller one for test, that some oxygen to 0 oxygen makes a big difference on how mic is getting burnd up en the charcol being left ✌️🙌
I live in a 3rd world country for a while and they made charcoal by having large fire pits and once the fire is going good they cover the wood with dirt. They would leave it for days. I remember going by the charcoal pits to see smoke rising from the soil.
the reason for the smaller amount of charcoal is because you left it in there after was done. You need to take it out and cool it immediately otherwise charcoal is going to keep burning and it will turn down to ashes you need to cool it down either with water or wIth soil to cover it and spread it out depending on what you want to use it for.
Uncontrolled air flow, and uneven heating was the problem. Take your drum and drill one line of 1/4 inch holes every four inches from bottom to top of the drum. Fill the drum with wood, size does not matter, largest wood closest to the holes, seal the drum. To be clear, the drum is completely sealed except for the 1/4 inch holes. Tip the drum onto two end supports, (bricks etc.) on its side, HOLES DOWN, two to three inches off the ground. Put wood along the length of the drum on both sides and light it. You will only need enough wood to evenly heat the drum to begin the gasification process. The wood gas will come out the holes on the bottom, ignite from the fire and augment the heating of the drum. No O2 can enter the holes until it cools. i think you will find this technique to be far more efficient.
Additionally, if you have plenty of wood, put only one, 1/2 inch hole on top, with no holes on the bottom. What will come out that 1/2 inch hole will be wood gas, (mostly hydrogen) run that through a filter, (two step, dryer and simple sand) feed it directly into the intake of your genset, and you have electricity, when the grid goes down and you don't have any gasoline.
Thank you for the video; it gives good ideas. With the way you placed the wood in the drum the amount of charcoal looks about right, maybe. It may have been the wood too. Soft wood doesn’t produce much. I did not recognize the names of the woods you used. It didn’t look like there was a lot of ash in your retort after it was done. If there was it would be an indicator of your charcoal burning up. I use Birch, it is the hardest in my state, and pack the barrel tight. I only get about 2/3s of a barrel. Cooling the charcoal down with water is a silly idea! Anyway thanks for sharing.
Also, exhaustion holes should be placed at the bottom of the chamber. That would not let oxygen inside the chamber, plus woodgases would self-fuel the pyrolysis process from the bottom. That would let your feedstock to be evenly and cleanly carbonized, rather than partially oxidized (burnt).
You need to plug all air unto the barrel when gasification is done. Charcoal only needs a tiny bit of air to smolder and burn. Just like making char cloth…Plug the holes.
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Your charcoal burned because you didn’t seal the area between the flue and lid which could be done with clay. It also didn’t get hot enough which could be dealt with by wrapping it with rockwool insulation or something else. This is a very solid design though and I’ll be using some of its aspects!
Thank you. I've since be able to get better yield by taking it out and cooling off the burning portions. I'm going to reverse the position of the barrel and seal off the lid with fire mortar
I use a similar size outer drum, in the middle I place a smaller drum up turned and filled with the pre charcoal wood. By heating with a fire in side the larger drum it allows for the gases to raise very slightly the inner drum allowing the gases out and when the fire dies down the inner drum drops making the seal again and not allowing any oxygen back in. It seems to work well although it is in smaller quantities but the charcoal comes out good
The problem is that it's not sealed around the pipe. It may seem like a small slit but the total surfsce area of that slit is large. Air gets in through the slit and gets out through the exhaust holes in the pipe which are higher up causing a current that circulates oxygen ptobably while its done degassing and the fires is still going. Solution: turn it upside down. The extra chimney doesn't matter just cut it off. Then put mud around the slit.
Too much of a gap around your pipe allowed flames to enter the chamber and allowed to wood, or a majority of it to actually burn. You need to seal that gap off better. Or better yet rebuild your kiln to burn on it's side with a single chimney coming off thus allowing for a sealed pyralosis chamber resulting a much better yield of charcoal. Check out Rick Rabjon's video. His kiln works excellent.
... I used to make charcoal for bbq until I realised that I might just as well burn the wood on the bbq and save myself a lot of time and effort ... hardwood only ... oak, ash, sycamore, cherry and hazel ...
@@KimballCody Run it through a pipe and bubble it through water so when the kiln cools water gets sucked in to balance the pressure. It can then be injected back to fuel the kiln or the washed the smoke can be used as motor fuel either at the time or compressed for future use. It is not a compressed to liquid gas like propane so it takes really big tank a very high pressure. To be fair if you didn't have much ash in the kiln it is tight enough and I just thought there was more wood than there actually was and do like running engines on wood gas.
Good video. I want to try this to get some half way done charcoal, I like to play with the heat when I bbq. I could toss some of the half way done stuff when I want to get more smoke/indirect heat on the grill.
I am looking at so much energy coming out of the top of your kiln. I do think all that energy would be more effective heating the barrel or another kiln on top of that one. Most likely you are not getting good heat transfer to the charcoal.
There are different ways of conserving the energy. Some retorts redirect the gas and have it burn under the barrel. That involves a double chamber, pipes, valves etc. My set up is one step above a dirt pit covered with corrugated sheet metal.
You could try with no air holes in the pipe, having it go all the way through, but putting the air holes in the top of the barrel, then once the gasses have stopped burning, remove it...overwise it will just turn to ash.
try eliminating the hole on top and bottom..make new small holes like one inch diameter make four holes at the side of the drum make it as low as you can..fill it tightly light it up using the holes you drilled and then let it smoke for 3 to five days..no need to use scrap wood as burner..those scrap wood can be turned to charcoal.
KimballCody ah got it..maybe its illegal in your place to produce smoke..cause its very smoky when making charcoal the premitive way but its more effecient..and effective..
i enjoyed the video, but i still don't understand the need to make charcoal for your grill. you had plenty of red hot coals in your small fire pit. i use oak & maple natural wood in my grill. i take the lid off my 22 inch webber and remove the cooking grate, then take small twigs that fall into my yard from my big oak tree and start a small fire on the bottom grate of my webber. once it gets going good i add some bigger pieces of oak. fill my grill about 1/2 full and let it burn with the lid off until i am left with red hot coals then it's time to put the lid back on and start cooking. i guess the only advantage i could see to using charcoal over wood is you get red hot coals quicker with charcoal than burning wood but not if you take into account the extra time and wood it took you to make that charcoal in the first place. what am i missing here???
KimballCody just mix up some mud/ clay from the yard and seal around it. Oxygen isn't necessarily the problem anyway. Pyrolization isn't exactly the absence of oxygen, but the prevention of combustion above combustion temperatures. Is just easier to facilitate that by excluding oxygen. To wit, I've made batches of char by just baking wood on a cookie sheet over a fire before. And many a thanksgiving Turkey has been pyrolized in an unattentive cook's oven. So long as you prevent ignition, combustion won't occur. But that's tedious. The reason your quality is poor is it's not getting to temperature and staying there long enough. The threw flue pipe is fine, but once you achieve combustible exhaust off gassing from the tank, cap the flue at the top. The pressure from the tank will push gases down into the fire and it will ignite. That combustion rate of the gas is several orders higher than solid fuel, so that gas combustion will heat the tank, hotter than the wood fire will ever get it. This perpetuats the cycle. Then just leave it alone. Leave it till it stops releasing gases and dies by itself.
KimballCody honestly though I've gotten away from kilns, retorts etc, they're just too finicky. The Japanese got it right with the kontiki method, which is what I use now. If I even bother. I made a lifetimes supply of charcoal with two kontiki runs so now i usually I just make a brush pile, light the top, let it burn down till is not producing flame and then quench it with water. Spread it out to dry, sift it, store it.
so you don't really need to insulate it then that's good to know, I'm trying to use only materials lying around in grandma's junk collection. Another guy I saw who insulated his also put a small pipe from the charcoal chamber down to the burner so the wood gas helped the fire out to some extent.
Frankly, it's one of the cleanest way I see so far, but the charcoal is kind of over cook. By the way, I think you can put one more drum on top of the rocket stove, that will be 200% efficient. LOL
I wonder if it would be better to put those holes closer to the bottom instead of the top so that the heat created could help make the charcoal even faster?
Can you lay the barrel on its side or at an angle? That would make it easier to lay the wood vertically so you will have more exposed surface area... larger yield... a more consistent product.
Reason you didn't get as much as expected: you placed the split wood horizontally with huge gaps in-between wood then sealed - you sealed in a stack of oxygen with the wood so it could burn away like in a regular fire. What you need to do is stack wood vertically next to each other absolutely minimising air gaps, pack as tightly as possible (bash them together with hammer if necessary) fill entire barrel (container - whatever) from bottom to top and then just do exactly what you did - high yield then, hope this helps
Mike Hewitt can u elaborate with a demo🙏🙏 please
@@aloysiusdinyuy7864 just pack the wood as tightly as possible
You got your perfect demo just pack the can as full as possible with nothing bigger than your fist works great for me
I have a lot of coconut briquettes,you can contact me +628117686330 i'm indonesia
@@ridwangalaxy4109 lol.
I live in Thailand and make a lot of charcoal. There are three main ways I learnt from the locals how to do it. I have a drum but it is much simpler, with one small hole in the lid and a perforated base. Takes too long to describe how I do it. The other way with really huge pieces like tree stumps, I use a big pit. It takes a month to cool down but can make up to five large sacks of prime charcoal. The simplest way though is to start a wood fire and when the wood at the bottom is glowing pick it out with tongs and drop it in water.
I've seen a couple different ways now...I prefer this method and will be trying this myself. Thank you for sharing.
I suggest chipping the wood if that’s possible because it increases your surface area so you don’t get those big chunks that are half charcoal half wood. This also allows you to fill the tort more and you’re able to process more at once. If you do this don’t let it burn so long because much of your yield was burned already. By far the best design I’ve seen though!
Thanks. I've since done a few different experiments and have had better yield. My next set up is going to be welded on the bottom end and I'm going to use mud/clay to seal the chimney on top.
Different than my setup. I have a 30lb grease drum inside of a 55 gal drum. Charcoal wood goes inside small drum. Then it goes inside large drum upside down. Fuel wood goes around the small drum inside large drum. Have a couple sections of chimney pipe attached to lid. Air holes in bottom of large drum. Light and put on the lid. Gets a good draft going. You can tell when the charcoal wood starts to off gas. The fire intensifies from the wood gas. Have a lot of apple trees so have plenty of hard wood. Resulting lump charcoal works great in my grill and charcoal smoker. Am currently working on a charcoal brake rotor forge.
nice. I'd love to get a hold of some of that wood
I have made three different size charcoal forges and a brake drum with two 3/16" plates in a slope to the blower hole has worked better than my others with a small fan and a dimmer light switch to control fan speed and I can tell you from experience that it is pretty efficient and gets hot enough to easily forge knives and machetes, swords, arrowheads ect. The one thing I've learned is to heat just enough steel you can work before it goes cold again and it's all experimenting would different steels to see how they move and how the structure changes in metal on a molecular level it's kind of crazy the way some steels react. I sure hope you make a forge it is fun to do and it is fun to move metal but something I didn't know before I started is charcoal does not need a ton of air, good luck and don't use aluminum anyting for a fire pot or anything like that the temperatures Forge reaches will melt aluminum easily and if you need more of a bowl shape fire Ash makes a great insulator just don't get it too wet just enough to make it look like Portland concrete mortar is more than enough and then set a heat lamp over it for a day or two and then burn a small fire in it to cure completely I sure hope my comment helps, one last warning though forging is addictive LOL be safe have fun Burns will happen just don't burn yourself too badly and get a thick pair of gloves
The water vapor phase and methane phase are about the same time length, and it's easy to tell when the water vapor phase is over (because flames start shooting out). If the flames continue for longer than the water vapor did, then there's combustion going on inside the barrel and you just have to stop the process. You won't have perfect charcoal if that happens, but it'll still be usable and it won't have all burned up.
After the gas is burned off I usually cap it off. I also seal the hole around the tube with mud
Insulation around the barrel to keep that magic heat in more 🤘. Great video 😊
Lol. Just did my first barrel and had the same results with some of it having a little wood left. I use the barrel inside a barrel method. I didn't have ash issues, but I clearly didn't get mine hot enough.
I just watched another video where they sealed the barrel with dirt and mud after the burn. They took the barrel off of the burner and stuck it in a hole in the dirt. Covered the top with a piece of sheet metal and covered it with dirt. Wouldn't take much more effort to add this to your procedure. Would solve the problem of air getting in. Really good video. I have a friend with a welding machine. Should be pretty easy to make. Not bad at all for a first run. At least you tried and you learned something. Thanks for sharing. Very cool.
I've been thinking about making a 2.0 edition and using mud/clay during the cook.
@@KimballCody Early waiting to see it. I want to make some charcoal. What are the modifications to your build ?
I like this design a lot.
I must applaud you for putting out this video it shows true character it is a nice refreshing change from the average if you were to seal that chamber more say with fireplace putty it would have worked better
. Thank you for taking time out of your day and posting this video it was pleasant to watch
I've put such a barrel upside down on the ground and lid a fire around it. It started glowing but I got everything out, no ash inside.
I have fond memories of riding through the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, specifically the Pamlico Sound surrounding Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville NC, and following my nose to some hidden gem of BBQ often down a cinder road through the tidal marshes, with no signs to point the way to the awesome food. People just knew where to go! Kind of "locals only". BUT one perfect day, instead of my nose leading me to slow cooked fire licked meats, I followed the smoke and learned something. It was how a family and their friends and neighbors ran, since the Reconstruction, a large former crab/shrimp "processing" shed turned into a "charcoal shack" where a family business survived by trucking in hardwood scrap to make charcoal to sell to mostly individual consumers and small BBQ joints vs large commercial accounts. Deciduous hardwoods don't exactly thrive in the conditions that are present in that region, so one couldn't just fire up the chainsaw and harvest from blow downs after a late summer hurricane.
Thank you for sharing your idea😊😍👍🥰
Very cool video! Thanks for doing it!
I think you did well here. Looking through the comments i agree with some...completely sealing out the air as soon as you are done the initial "burn" does prevent charcoal loss in my tests. One thing i prefer to do is to use a TLUD (top lit up draft). I do this because i only burn the wood i want to make into charcoal and don't use extra to heat it like you are doing. As soon as my flames burn out from the initial gasification process i seal the container and prevent the charcoal from burning further. I think i have videos that will show you what i mean....if not still up i will make one on request for you. Keep experimenting
Nice
When your hot charcoal stopped giving off wood gas, the charcoal sat there and smoldered using the ambient air that came in through that large gap around your stack until there was not enough heat/ oxygen to support combustion.
This reminds me of when I was growing up in the caribbean. The natives made charcoal, as it was their preferred method of cooking. They would make a pile of branches, start it on fire, cover it with dirt and let it smolder for 24-48 hrs i believe. At that point they would pull off the dirt and let it die, or, they would let it burn for, 60 hrs i believe and then pull off the dirt and throw water onto it, and it would powder down to lime, which they used for whitewash etc
Genius
Where I come from we make it in the ground. Dig a ditch. Pack up the wood on top each other. Cover with leaves grass etc. Start fire in the front of ditch then cover with soil.
I got a kingsford charcoal ad before this video 😆
So a bit of work with my powerarc welder and I can make my own charcoal. How cool is that!
Thank-you for the video. I appreciate you doing this for us....
The quick and dirty method is a barrel at a 60 degree angle. Tight pack the wood and light a fire on top. I've heard it takes a couple of hours but the air flowing from the open top limits the oxygen to most of the wood. cover or soak to stop it. You get less charcoal but it's simple.
So glad your teaching this class professor.
lol
Wow, when you decide to make charcoal, you go to town on it. Good job. I probably would have filled a five gallon metal pail and sealed it and would've been satisfied with that, to make activated charcoal for filtering water.
I use a barrel and a half with a chimney mounted to the half barrel. Fill the bottom barrel (1/2" air holes in the bottom) with wood light the top of the fuel in the full barrel and then place the half with chimney pipe on top.
That's a large rocket stove. The 1/2" holes in the bottom of the barrel will always be less intake air than the @8" chimney, causing a deficit of O2. The O2 supply will necessarily combine with woodgas from the top of the fuel and burn down to the bottom leave charcoal in its place. I have run a whole barrel of oak leaves as an experiment and the individual leaves are charcoalized but otherwise intact.
I'm a lil confused.Can you draw a diagram of what you said for me plz. Really appreciate it..
Thku
Baruc Barbers one 55 gal drum plus one 55 gal drum cut in half plus one chimney...I used 8" hvac ducting.
The bottom (whole barrel) is filled with fuel to be charcoalized. Then the half barrel with chimney installed in top is fitted (by cutting alternate patterns and sliding together).
Bottom barrel has 1/2" holes (mine has 20 or so) and is set on concrete blocks for an up draft. Light the top of fuel, then slide the top with chimney on.
The heat going up the chimney pulls air in the bottom hole, but not enough O2 to completely burn.
When all is mostly burned, pull off top with chimney put on solid top and take barrel off blocks. The solid top and covering of holes by ground contact stops the burn.
Let cool and then collect a third of a barrel of charcoalized fuel.
I heard that if you don’t quench the charcoals when they’re done pyrolizing they can reignite and keep burning. But either way, very cool rocket stove retort!
A more even heat around the barrel should help. It seems like the wood at the bottom turns to charcoal first and starts to turn into ash as the wood at the top is just begining to change.
You should also find a way to cover up all the gaps were air can get in when the flames from the gas die down. The charcoal will ignite and slowly burn if there's any oxygen. i saw big gaps between the lid and middle pipe thing. You should also cover the pipe when the gas stops burning.
Seal the top gap with mud. Too much air getting in.
There should be no ash. It would appear you have a leak somewhere. Also, pack your wood more densely, leaving as few open spaces between pieces. Real charcoal "tinkles" when broken.
Surface area and timed burning are your variables you must adjust to get proper yield. You can do test runs on few batches to get your desired results.
Thank you. I've done a few batches after this with better results
You left it burning. An there was oxygen, that pipe does not cute off the oxygen as soon as the fire went out oxygen rush back in an regnited the charcoal. You have an almost perfect set up but the pipe goes to the top an no farther. Onces you cook the charcoal your suppose to prevent oxygen from getting back in. In a sense smother it so fire can't start up. Just extend the pipe an make sure that you put a collar on the pipe and cap the pipe, those little holes allowed the oxygen back in an you lost your charcoal. An the heat was not evenly distributed. So you ended up with wood that was not fired enough. At lest you have done better then some. Thank You Loader.
My subsequent burns have become better. I've found that the CO2 produced from combustion actually puts out any fire inside the barrel. I'm going to make a modified barrel and try to make it more air tight.
@@KimballCody
I compared your method with the one in /watch?v=_g6Q7RmxG0I
- You use multiple holes for outlet of wood gas, while that other video only make one tiny hole. From my experience, some of those multiple holes may become inlet (instead of outlet) for air into your charcoal, which bring oxygen in. Perhaps that's what burn some of your charcoal.
- He put the hole on top of the can, while you put the holes on the bottom of the drum (he used can, not drum, so it's kind of smaller scale than yours). The hole on top made him easier to plug the can as soon as the wood gas was exhausted.
@@gloriabisco6148 pleas post the url only in the comment. I tried to type the url but couldn't find the video.. If possible post the channel name .
Good video , i had read years ago that Henry Ford did not like seeing all the wood cutoffs or scraps not having any use so he wound up knowing a man by the name of King that had the idea of turning all the scraps into charcoal and then into brickets they went ahead and formed a partnership they called Kingsford and bagged the Charcoal brickettes Henry Ford. Would. Include a couple of bags with every new Ford car that was sold to promote taking the family to a outdoor picnic and use the charcoal to cook a meal I always smile whenever i see a bag of Kingsford charcoal thinking of that story. On how. Ford didnt like any thing. Going to waste or not being utilized every way possible
Maybe in the future, the wood can be arranged neatly and then sprinkled with sawdust until it is all covered, then closed.
looks like your charcoal maybe ignited at some point? thats where all the ash came from. a better seal on the flue that sits in the fire pit or maybe drench the charcoal after a burn. interesting design though! Good work..
Your lid has a gap that makes oxygen to get sucket in to the wood, so you burn it UP instead of getting charcol. You culd fiks it with a weld or maby some dirt and water and make a paste ✌️ cool Setup, thinking about making something like this my self
I've been thinking about flipping it so the gap is on top and use some mud to seal it.
@@KimballCody mud for seal is gonna be good 👌😎 ive just learn for my self when i tried smaller one for test, that some oxygen to 0 oxygen makes a big difference on how mic is getting burnd up en the charcol being left ✌️🙌
@@KimballCody but i love the setup, gonna make one my self 🤟
I live in a 3rd world country for a while and they made charcoal by having large fire pits and once the fire is going good they cover the wood with dirt. They would leave it for days. I remember going by the charcoal pits to see smoke rising from the soil.
A lot of the local charcoal is from Mexico . El Diablo carbon. I believe they make it the same way
Nice, and haven't seen this retort design before, but it is excellent.
the reason for the smaller amount of charcoal is because you left it in there after was done. You need to take it out and cool it immediately otherwise charcoal is going to keep burning and it will turn down to ashes you need to cool it down either with water or wIth soil to cover it and spread it out depending on what you want to use it for.
No, the reason is because oxygen is getting into the barrel through those holes after the gasification stage.
@@patandderry8416 that's exactly why you have to cool it down, to stop oxygen from reacting any further and reduce it to carbon dioxide.
Wrap your barrel with a cheap harbor freight welders blanket and you will be amazed at how much more heat you retain.
Good idea. I'll try that with the 2.0
Uncontrolled air flow, and uneven heating was the problem. Take your drum and drill one line of 1/4 inch holes every four inches from bottom to top of the drum. Fill the drum with wood, size does not matter, largest wood closest to the holes, seal the drum. To be clear, the drum is completely sealed except for the 1/4 inch holes. Tip the drum onto two end supports, (bricks etc.) on its side, HOLES DOWN, two to three inches off the ground. Put wood along the length of the drum on both sides and light it. You will only need enough wood to evenly heat the drum to begin the gasification process. The wood gas will come out the holes on the bottom, ignite from the fire and augment the heating of the drum. No O2 can enter the holes until it cools. i think you will find this technique to be far more efficient.
I'll try it. Do you place the drum in the dirt after gasification is done to choke out oxygen?
If your drum is well sealed, there is no need, but if not, yes.
Additionally, if you have plenty of wood, put only one, 1/2 inch hole on top, with no holes on the bottom. What will come out that 1/2 inch hole will be wood gas, (mostly hydrogen) run that through a filter, (two step, dryer and simple sand) feed it directly into the intake of your genset, and you have electricity, when the grid goes down and you don't have any gasoline.
Thank you for the video; it gives good ideas. With the way you placed the wood in the drum the amount of charcoal looks about right, maybe. It may have been the wood too. Soft wood doesn’t produce much. I did not recognize the names of the woods you used. It didn’t look like there was a lot of ash in your retort after it was done. If there was it would be an indicator of your charcoal burning up. I use Birch, it is the hardest in my state, and pack the barrel tight. I only get about 2/3s of a barrel.
Cooling the charcoal down with water is a silly idea! Anyway thanks for sharing.
My neighbors:What the hell is that guy banging on now!!!!
I did giggle at the pine, the joke was not lost.
Pretty sure charcoal is made in the absence of oxygen; just seal it up better and I think you'll get better results.
Also, exhaustion holes should be placed at the bottom of the chamber. That would not let oxygen inside the chamber, plus woodgases would self-fuel the pyrolysis process from the bottom.
That would let your feedstock to be evenly and cleanly carbonized, rather than partially oxidized (burnt).
You need to plug all air unto the barrel when gasification is done. Charcoal only needs a tiny bit of air to smolder and burn. Just like making char cloth…Plug the holes.
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What does that have to do with charcoal and pyrolysis?
Mate, you can get steel-strap lid drums, that way you won't lose you hearing.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and time. Good video.
hello from iraq with you amazing
Your charcoal burned because you didn’t seal the area between the flue and lid which could be done with clay. It also didn’t get hot enough which could be dealt with by wrapping it with rockwool insulation or something else. This is a very solid design though and I’ll be using some of its aspects!
Thank you. I've since be able to get better yield by taking it out and cooling off the burning portions. I'm going to reverse the position of the barrel and seal off the lid with fire mortar
I use a similar size outer drum, in the middle I place a smaller drum up turned and filled with the pre charcoal wood. By heating with a fire in side the larger drum it allows for the gases to raise very slightly the inner drum allowing the gases out and when the fire dies down the inner drum drops making the seal again and not allowing any oxygen back in. It seems to work well although it is in smaller quantities but the charcoal comes out good
The problem is that it's not sealed around the pipe. It may seem like a small slit but the total surfsce area of that slit is large. Air gets in through the slit and gets out through the exhaust holes in the pipe which are higher up causing a current that circulates oxygen ptobably while its done degassing and the fires is still going.
Solution: turn it upside down. The extra chimney doesn't matter just cut it off. Then put mud around the slit.
The top part is welded
Too much of a gap around your pipe allowed flames to enter the chamber and allowed to wood, or a majority of it to actually burn. You need to seal that gap off better. Or better yet rebuild your kiln to burn on it's side with a single chimney coming off thus allowing for a sealed pyralosis chamber resulting a much better yield of charcoal. Check out Rick Rabjon's video. His kiln works excellent.
I love your charcoal
... I used to make charcoal for bbq until I realised that I might just as well burn the wood on the bbq and save myself a lot of time and effort ... hardwood only ... oak, ash, sycamore, cherry and hazel ...
Seal it up so air can't get in when it is hot.
Also fit the wood in so it is as tightly packed as possible.
What about the smoke?
@@KimballCody
Run it through a pipe and bubble it through water so when the kiln cools water gets sucked in to balance the pressure. It can then be injected back to fuel the kiln or the washed the smoke can be used as motor fuel either at the time or compressed for future use. It is not a compressed to liquid gas like propane so it takes really big tank a very high pressure.
To be fair if you didn't have much ash in the kiln it is tight enough and I just thought there was more wood than there actually was and do like running engines on wood gas.
Good video. I want to try this to get some half way done charcoal, I like to play with the heat when I bbq. I could toss some of the half way done stuff when I want to get more smoke/indirect heat on the grill.
Good idea
Might wanna do it with wet wood to steam to slow it down. Could get a little blower to assist with the temp regulating
I love it, thanks for the video
I am looking at so much energy coming out of the top of your kiln. I do think all that energy would be more effective heating the barrel or another kiln on top of that one. Most likely you are not getting good heat transfer to the charcoal.
There are different ways of conserving the energy. Some retorts redirect the gas and have it burn under the barrel. That involves a double chamber, pipes, valves etc. My set up is one step above a dirt pit covered with corrugated sheet metal.
This is really cool!! 🔥
the white ash is caused by the air leakage you have into the char making compartment
I think you might have to starve the opening on the bottom at a certain point. There is too much air in there but not bad.
You could use it for Bio-char, put in your garden soil.
Cool alot of people make charcoal kayak also!
I want to say, the big companies get it in to coals and then cool it with water and let it dry.
Great video! thank you, my friend
I like to see how the drum is prepared inside and under the drum
I'll do another video soon
I hope that you plant trees double the amount of what you cut. Save the environment.
Sure
You could try with no air holes in the pipe, having it go all the way through, but putting the air holes in the top of the barrel, then once the gasses have stopped burning, remove it...overwise it will just turn to ash.
Thanks 👍
It burned away because it wasn't sealed from direct fire.
If you want less and quicker to make use an empty fuel can 5L-10L, saw some planks into small chunks and throw them on a fire
Great idea. !
Try using uniform sized wood to get unified charcoal. cool vid!
Thanks, I'll try it
Semangat tetap berkarya..👍
Too hot. You burned up the wood instead of cooking it. Or oxygen got inside. Those white pieces are from the wood burning.
Mantap bang lanjutkan 👍👍👍👍👍
The fire triangle is fuel oxygen and an ignition source. The wood has to be seasoned (dry) and not treated. fruit tree wood is best.
Heat
try eliminating the hole on top and bottom..make new small holes like one inch diameter make four holes at the side of the drum make it as low as you can..fill it tightly light it up using the holes you drilled and then let it smoke for 3 to five days..no need to use scrap wood as burner..those scrap wood can be turned to charcoal.
My burner is called a retort. It doesn't "smoke" and the gasses are reburned and help heat it.
KimballCody ah got it..maybe its illegal in your place to produce smoke..cause its very smoky when making charcoal the premitive way but its more effecient..and effective..
A retort is actually more effective and efficient. It reburns the smoke to help heat the wood
i enjoyed the video, but i still don't understand the need to make charcoal for your grill. you had plenty of red hot coals in your small fire pit. i use oak & maple natural wood in my grill. i take the lid off my 22 inch webber and remove the cooking grate, then take small twigs that fall into my yard from my big oak tree and start a small fire on the bottom grate of my webber. once it gets going good i add some bigger pieces of oak. fill my grill about 1/2 full and let it burn with the lid off until i am left with red hot coals then it's time to put the lid back on and start cooking. i guess the only advantage i could see to using charcoal over wood is you get red hot coals quicker with charcoal than burning wood but not if you take into account the extra time and wood it took you to make that charcoal in the first place. what am i missing here???
Hello what is the life expectancy of the drum with the high temperature ?
10 out of 10 for trying. Me thinks packing more wood in and less oxygen would be better. But you have something and it is not bad at all.
I'm getting better yields now. I might design a better lid to seal around the pipe
KimballCody just mix up some mud/ clay from the yard and seal around it. Oxygen isn't necessarily the problem anyway. Pyrolization isn't exactly the absence of oxygen, but the prevention of combustion above combustion temperatures. Is just easier to facilitate that by excluding oxygen. To wit, I've made batches of char by just baking wood on a cookie sheet over a fire before. And many a thanksgiving Turkey has been pyrolized in an unattentive cook's oven. So long as you prevent ignition, combustion won't occur. But that's tedious. The reason your quality is poor is it's not getting to temperature and staying there long enough. The threw flue pipe is fine, but once you achieve combustible exhaust off gassing from the tank, cap the flue at the top. The pressure from the tank will push gases down into the fire and it will ignite. That combustion rate of the gas is several orders higher than solid fuel, so that gas combustion will heat the tank, hotter than the wood fire will ever get it. This perpetuats the cycle. Then just leave it alone. Leave it till it stops releasing gases and dies by itself.
KimballCody honestly though I've gotten away from kilns, retorts etc, they're just too finicky. The Japanese got it right with the kontiki method, which is what I use now. If I even bother. I made a lifetimes supply of charcoal with two kontiki runs so now i usually I just make a brush pile, light the top, let it burn down till is not producing flame and then quench it with water. Spread it out to dry, sift it, store it.
kontiki, i've searched it on google. an instant charcoal.
I get a few lumps from the outside boiler it looks a lot better also.
Who thought he looks like south african cricketer AB de Villiers 😀
A handsome guy
I’m new to this, but I want to learn. How long do you burn the wood?
3 hours
so you don't really need to insulate it then that's good to know, I'm trying to use only materials lying around in grandma's junk collection. Another guy I saw who insulated his also put a small pipe from the charcoal chamber down to the burner so the wood gas helped the fire out to some extent.
I think the insulation is a waste of time
كيف تتم صناعتها
Amazing.....
Thanks about your video.
I am suport thanks...
Frankly, it's one of the cleanest way I see so far, but the charcoal is kind of over cook.
By the way, I think you can put one more drum on top of the rocket stove, that will be 200% efficient. LOL
I'll try it
You must not be airtight on top. The flame burnt some of your wood to nothing. You should get 1/2barrel from a full barrel.
The top is airtight. Subsequent batches yielded better ratios of finished product
Steady friend
Joe Charcoal...............thanks for posting the "How Not To" vid
I wonder if it would be better to put those holes closer to the bottom instead of the top so that the heat created could help make the charcoal even faster?
They are on the bottom
Too much air got to you char. and un even heat transfer. back to the thinking process.I love BBQ!
Can you lay the barrel on its side or at an angle? That would make it easier to lay the wood vertically so you will have more exposed surface area... larger yield... a more consistent product.
Standing it up allows the heat to go up the pipe
So for only a couple hundred bucks and many hours of your time, you can have a very small amount of low-quality charcoal?
Nice design. So the wood gas could be directed to fuel the fire , I may try that. Cheers