Making Biochar with Jolly Roger Ovens

A 30 gallon retort heated by a 55 gallon TLUD is the basic idea. I've been a biochar enthusiast for 5 years now and riding the learning curve on how to make and use biochar at home. This device can run very cleanly. The cleanest I have seen for a simple batch device.

Playing with large, red hot, drums is a safety concern. So be thoughtful and careful if you try it. I am looking forward to making improvements to the design and looking forward to seeing anyone elses. This is an open architecture. If you come up with improvements, please share them.

Obviously harvesting the heat for some useful purpose would be a good place to start.

This was my first attempt at putting together a youtube movie and the first time I played with iMovie. It won't be my last. This year, 2012, I hope to share what I am doing with the biochar I have been making.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Biochar
• charcoal
• TLUD
• retort
• soils

[douglasnclayton]

rubbernecker, thanks for your compliments. You seem to have missed an important detail. There is a 30 gallon retort inside that 55 and all sides are being heated.

How do you get a TLUD to run all night? Mine is done in 75 minutes

[cdgulvin]

Thank you for this- the most helpful info I have found, Well thought out process and I really like the retort on top of the tlud. Good job on the video!

[rubbernecker13]

@douglasnclayton Oh, hey! Sorry, I must have missed the inner 30 gallon drum, I'm just watching it again without my girlfriend yapping. My tlud may be a bit slower operating on updraft only, but I try to run batches back to back when I'm home before rain soaks my wood chips again. Sometimes the finer wood chips just smolder to the bottom, bellowing smoke and dripping condensates for a few hours, definitely not ideal. I think you've got the best setup I've seen yet. Many thanks for sharing it.

[rubbernecker13]

Also, a pot skirt can greatly improve the efficiency of trying to apply heat to anything. Right now, your tlud is only heating the bottom of your retort. Make a sheet metal pot skirt chimney combo and all sides will be heated. Look at the pot skirts on high efficiency rocket stoves. I imagine moist wood would be less of a problem in the retort. Might even be possible to burn a little bit of trash or what have you to run the retort when you're out of chips. I'd like to try cow pies in a retort.

[rubbernecker13]

Outflippinstanding! I ran a 65 gallon tlud all night last night and wished I could run the truck or heat the house with all that energy shooting toward the stars. A retort crossed my mind but not the details, good job. I don't have a blower so I sift sort my chips on an old bedframe covered in hardware cloth leaned on a timber a frame and dry on the driveway. The 1/4 to 1/2 inch chips just want to smolder, even with a 55 gallon chimney. Pine cones are cake in a tlud.