Permsteading.com

I've been watching Albert Bates' talks on youtube where he describes the Farm ecovillage and gives lots of details on the process of making biochar. What about making a rocket mass heater that produces biochar? I'm brainstorming and looking for input; if you make a rmh batch which means a side loading-- bigger firebox-- and had a big enough door/opening and a big enough firebox to accommodate a retort packed with wood I think you could send the initial gas from the retort through the rmh system and capture the heat and then be left with biochar.

I'm going to brainstorm some more on this concept but if anyone has more ideas that would be great. I think the mechanics and physics would work, maybe someone has done something like this already and we could learn from them.

Michael

I attended the Mother Earth News Fair last weekend at Seven Spring. There was a guy there who talked about charcoal, and how to make it. He used small pieces for Bio-Char, Larger chunks he used to power a Syn Gas Generator and run an Older Farmal Cub, a generator, and a 8 hp roto tiller. His Name is Gary Gilmore and he works with the Pa DCNR. His main charcoal burner is a 55 gal drum with holes in the bottom of the barrel. The barrel is filled with wood and the fire is lit on the top. Once the fire is going well he adds a 2nd barrel which acts like a chimney/after burner and the unit produces little to no smoke. The finished product is ready in a short time and you get about a 1/3 of a barrel of charcoal to use yourself or sell for grilling. He had a heater to heat his garage/work shop that he made charcoal in. He used 1/2 a barrel for his fire box and sort of slid it in like you would slide in a dresser drawer. The upper part of the stove stayed in place. When the charcoal was done he pulled out the drawer and saved the charcoal. I did not get to see his entire talk, but what I saw was very interesting. Here is a video showing his way of making charcoal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyzY9D_rgeg