Permsteading.com

That makes sense to me. And its a Good thing to know. I have never used Bio-char, I will have to check out the benefits and maybe see about starting to use it. I have heard about it for some time, but never tried it. Its hard for this Old Dog to learn new tricks.

Yes, the trick is to get it wet and mucky. It's amazingly efficient at grabbing and holding onto water and nutrients, so if you put it down dry it will rob the surrounding soil. If you load it first, it will normalize with the soil and thereafter hold everything for the soil to work with. I have really got to get my butt in gear and build my big retort.

I'm just going to build the 55 gallon retort. I have the 55 gallon drum but I need to get bold of a 35 gallon for the inner gasifier compartment. I'm at the beginning of a long term no till growing system and I want to help it along by putting down a layer of innoculated biochar mixed with rabbit manure.

I kind of like this video, it shows how to make a gasifier stove and demonstrates how it works. Pretty simple really. I watched several videos that used a battery to operate a fan to operate the stove. That didn't seem sustainable to me, and you had the cost of a battery and a fan. This process works well and does not require any out side input except wood. And I have wood. You can make the stove larger simply by using larger cans, a paint can would give you a nice size and perhaps add some stability as far a tip over would be concerned with a Larger cooking pot. The smaller size did make a nice flame and the fire was about the size of your gas stove burner. So the smaller unit may make the right size fire for cooking, I was just concerned about tipping it over with a Large pot. I suppose that you could add some sort of legs to make it more stable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9jmoU9E3_s

Nice find there, Guy. I am going to get a couple bigger cans to use for testing here either this weekend or by the end of the month. The crazy busy time of the holiday season has begun for me.

I agree with you about the balance of the pot on a little stove. The idea of a separate stand is pretty sensible and I have come across a few videos with such an aparatus.

I have been daydreaming over the outdoor possibilities of combining a glass door design with Aprovecho's. Of course, I would add a flower design for some bling. First though, I have to see for myself how these stoves work.

Could you ever use a flue with a gasifier?

I do not know. I suppose you could, but most of the ones I have seen are the small can types for camping. I think the larger one that Aprovecho made for institutional use has a flue. Maybe someone else knows more about them and can give you a better answer.

I'll surround the tin can with brick and see what happens.