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Making charcoal

Started by Don P, November 22, 2017, 07:52:01 AM

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Al_Smith

A little bit is nice for grilling if you have time to do it .To me lump charcoal is better than briquettes .However it takes a good bit to get the fire going just the way you like . It's worth the time if you have the time .

justallan1

What I did was take a 20-25 gallon oil drum, punch some holes in the lid, cram it plumb full of wood and then put the lid on. I then put that upside down in a 55 gallon drum and filled around and on top with wood and lit the wood. I then took a half of a 55 gallon drum with no ends and perched that on top for a flue. I had already punched some holes in the bottom few inches of the 55 gallon drum that I have the fire in to let air in.
After I let the fire burn itself out I took the flue off and covered the 55 gallon drum with a chunk of sheet metal with a couple cinder blocks to weight it down and plugged the vent holes at the bottom with dirt.
The following morning I pulled out the 20 gallon oil drum and opened it to find I had probably 12-15 gallons of charcoal.
My little charcoal gasifier is built and hooked up to a generator, now I just need to bust up the charcoal and fire the thing up.

mike_belben

Any of you guys ever look into making "active" charcoal?
Praise The Lord

TKehl

@r.man or anyone else using a wood stove to make charcoal.

Do you put a lid on the bucket when you take the coals out or dowse them with water or?  Seems like they would keep burning if they were moved to an open bucket. 

Wanting to try this out.  Am I overthinking things? 
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Don P

If it is still hot it'll burn if it can get oxygen, so yes you need an airtight lid. I've heard stories of old time colliers opening up the mound before it had completely cooled and losing it in a very hot fire.

I had a little pile of cooled charcoal on the ground a few feet from the burn barrel and had the bottom bung open, glowing bright. The black charcoal that could see the fire relit. Play in a safe area.

I noticed they have a charcoal retort set up in Liberia for turning their scraps into cooking fuel.

TKehl

Well, I just couldn't wait for a response.   ::)  Had been thinking about doing this for a week or two and had a bunch of extra coals in the stove tonight. 

I filled a 5 gallon metal bucket with coals from the fireplace.  It lit fire 3 times while I was filling it.  I threw a little snow on it to settle the flames with the intent of leaving enough heat to dry itself out.  LOTS OF STEAM!

After that, I packed 2 inches of ash on top and mounded our tremendous amount of snow (2 whole inches!) around the bucket smearing some on the sides to take advantage of latent heat.  Still some steam here for a bit.

So far the only casualty is the plastic handle on the bucket bail.   ::)  :'(   ;)
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

bdsmith

TKehl:
Ash will allow air in very slowly so the coals will remain lit.  They will also keep in the heat.  That's how the oldtimers kept from having to go through the pain of using the flint and steel to respark a fire.

Combustion requires 3 things - fuel, oxygen and heat.
You need an air tight lid on the container if you want to stop combustion or you can put water on the coals to cool them off.  Otherwise it will burn until only ash is left.

I have tried to a couple of different ways to smother the fire when I make biochar in pits.  I found that lots of water is the only consistently effective method.

TKehl

You bring up a lot of good points that I would have a hard time arguing with.  I had nothing to loose but about 10-20 minutes of my time.   

Unfortunately though, it looks like it worked.   ;D  Will open it this afternoon and see.    ;)

None of the packed ash "cap" has fallen and the bucket is cold to the touch.  I did pour a little water on the ash cap about 1AM this morning when I went out to feed the stove.  Thinking that frozen packed ash would be a better air barrier than just packed ash.  On the other hand, the bucket was already pretty cold at that time.  I don't think wet packed ash made a difference over dry packed ash.
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Al_Smith

Charcoal has been around since cavemen discovered fire .When in England for example during the dark ages they set huge piles of wood afire to make the stuff.Covered the pile with dirt and watched it for several days on end .Those tending the fire sat on one legged stools so if they fell asleep they'd fall off which would wake them up .If the dirt cover fell away the whole pile could burst into flames and be lost,all that work .

TKehl

My setup:



Removal of frozen ash cap:



My supervisors  ;) :



Results:



Very small batch and still need to sift out the ash.  But, I had no money and very little time involved in this.  Charcoal came out nice and dry.   Pretty happy with the results!  ;D
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Don P

Burger time  ;D

If you look back at the big barrel burn I was doing I was dropping a lid on top and then a few scoops of dirt packed on top of the lid to exclude air. Then I look for smoke and if any shows I pack that area better. That amount was taking a couple of days to cool off.

Mike, tell me more about activated charcoal. I'm thinking it is just "hot" charcoal, clean, everything but the carbon has been burned out.

mike_belben

Naw, i checked wikipedia and its a bit more involved.  Either steam or chemical process.  Its expensive to buy and has a million uses.
Praise The Lord

JohnW

Don. I've made charcoal, probably about 20 times, with various direct burn setups.  I smothered the fire out most of the time, but I like extinguishing with water better.  It puts the fire out faster, saves more charcoal and bigger pieces.

However you do it, sifting out the ashes and fines is important for blacksmith type use.

bdsmith

TKehl,
Using snow to remove heat!  That a new one for me - I live in south Mississippi.

While we just had 1" a few days ago, it has been 25 years sine the previous snow fall.

TKehl

We don't get snow all that often compared to further North.  An inch or two a few times a winter and it may stick around for a week maybe two.  There are exceptions to that though...

As such, if I do more, I think I will set the bucket on a couple concrete blocks inside a plastic tub of water/ice.  The tubs that the cattle protein licks come in look just right.   ;)
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

r.man

My cooling pail is a steel pail with a steel lid that used to have a retractable plastic pour spout. I fill it with hot coals, pop on the lid and then drop a brick over the big pour hole. If you want the charcoal for biochar quenching works well, if for fuel choking is better. Last year I was dumping directly into a steel barrel with a steel lid but decided I was converting some char into ash, too much air available in the barrel. Banking the fire was burying live coal in a thick layer of ash to avoid having to relight and it works good but not in a pail out in the cold. I can cap the pail with ash only and in 8 hrs everything in it will be cold. Too much heat loss through the sides and not enough volume to protect the core area. Hope this helps.
Life is too short or my list is too long, not sure which. Dec 2014

Don P

 I played around with the little gasifying stove from the driveonwood site today, pretty neat. Even with it cold and windy it was smoke free and a little fistful of wood lasted about 30 minutes and produced good heat



 

 

 

 

 

Don P

I've been slowly gathering parts for a simple fire and ruminating, let me run this by you guys. A lot of effort goes into sealing the top to keep oxygen out of the top of the container. I'm going to try it with an old water pressure tank. What if I just put the output pipe fitting up top and my charge/cleanout port is on a plate at the bottom that has the inlet nozzle in it. A small air leak there simply feeds the fire. I'll have to invert it to charge but not a big deal on a small tank. Thoughts?

bdsmith

How will you light the charge after you invert the tank?
The proper positioning of the fuel in relation to air will enable pyrolysis, i.e. a combustion moving through the fuel towards air, leaving behind charcoal. 
With an air vent at the bottom, you need to light top of the charge. Wood gas will escape out the top.
With an air vent at the top, you need to light the bottom and have the wood gas leave through the bottom port. Since the hot gasses will rise, this method might not work well.

Most people find that with a Top Lit, Up Draft stove (TLUD), they often build it with too little air flow to keep the fire burning.  What they don't realize is that more air doesn't mean less charcoal, it just means faster burning.
Of course, stopping the combustion at the right time is key otherwise you end up with a pile of ash instead of charcoal.

Don P

Whoops sorry, I'm jumping around. My wife says I start conversations in the middle  :D
check out this video on the simple fire charcoal gasifier, that's what I'm gathering parts for;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL79ci4TH7k
It is similar to what justallen and puffergas have done.

LeeB

How long would that engine run on 5 gal. of charcoal?
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

Don P

I've watched several of his videos, including one where he is running a Ranger on charcoal. My memory might be off but I think he was getting about 20 minutes on that setup. A taller container is the trick from what he discovered. I've taken an old water pressure tank and started fabbing one today. I had never opened one up until now, they are kind of interesting. First lesson was bleed the air off before drilling a hole in one  ::). I cut a "door" in the lower section that I'm going to try to load through. I took a piece of 1/8" steel plate and used the radial arm turned sideways to make a concave mold to hammer the plate into a curve that fit over the opening. Then drilled a 1-1/4" hole in that and inserted the nozzle through that removable plate. Inside the tank there is a rubber bladder in the lower third held in by a ring that is press fit at the lower weld. I got a screwdriver in under that, bent it in and then cut it. Cut around the bladder at the bottom inlet and pulled that out. At the weld at the 2/3 height there is a steel domed baffle with a 1" hole in it dividing the upper third from the rest of the container. That might be able to be used as a cooling/storage chamber but I wasn't sure if that was safe and wanted more run time so I cut it out. I think I have more like 15 gallons worth of tank at this point. Out of the top I cut a hole for the 1" outlet pipe and mounted a flange up there. From that I think I'll elbow over and then down into a 2" pipe full of steel wool as a filter/cooler. I'm more paranoid about heat and fire than he is but he's been running on plastic hose and foam filters fine.

gww

I do not know about charcoal but read that on the wood gassifiers that 20 lbs of dry wood added up to 1 gal of gassoline.
Cheers
gww

justallan1

What I did was found an old grease drum that I'm guessing is 20 gallons and had a lid and cleaned it out. (Luckily it had a plastic bag for the grease)
At about 3" from the bottom I cut a hole for the air inlet. I took a plate of thin steel and cut a hole big enough to weld a 1" threaded coupler, with using a couple you can change your fitting inside for where you want the fire and it gives you something on the outside to plumb in any your exhaust feed from your engine if you decide to do that at some point. I then used 8 bolts around that plate bolting it to the drum, using plenty of red RTV. NOTE, put the bolts with the threads facing out so they don't get filled with crap if you ever have to take it apart.
The top of my drum had a lid and a lip for the lid which helped me tremendously. I got lucky and found a cooking pot that fit perfectly. I bought a chunk of stove sealing rope and put it around the lip on the drum and put the cooking pot on that. THAT HAS TO BE AN AIRTIGHT SEAL.
I probably ran the thing for 20 minutes or better and around the base of the gasifier is was slightly warm, but the rest was plenty cool. I used some real old cheap plastic vacuum hose and it didn't hurt it a bit.
The two biggest things that I found that will ruin your chances of success are air leaks and the sizing of your charcoal. Keep in mind that your fire can only get as big as the air will let it get.
Something else to remember is to be able to shut air off, from both directions, BEFORE you light it the first time. If it starts getting hot you want to be able to shut it down and if it still gets any air it will sit there and smolder any charcoal left inside.
I hope this helps a little as I'm basically brand new to this also.



 

Don P

I got the gasifier assembled yesterday and did a trial run. If you look at Allan's above I had the simple fire charcoal reactor made from a well pressure tank. Out of the top I put a section of aluminum vacuum cleaner pipe then plastic vac hose to an old oil burner induction fan. Output from the fan went to a pipe with an elbow, no filter at this point. It fired up and ran well producing a good quantity of grayish white charcoal smelling smoke. I ran it for a half hour or so and it got warm but never hot which sounds correct. I tried to light the smoke with a propane torch and could not. The torch would clean up the smoke immediately but it wouldn't actually light. I tried removing the fan and hoses just leaving the aluminum pipe in, and on natural draft it would still "run" quite well still making good smoke but still would not light. Am I doing something wrong or is this normal?

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