MAKING BIOCHAR: with Peter Hirst of New England Biochar

[See more on biochar & local food production: http://curiouslylocal.com ]




Peter Hirst (saltydog335@aol.com) brought his 70 gallon stainless steel biochar retort to Warner, NH and showed us how to burn 100 pounds of wood into 30 pounds of biochar. That's enough for a few beds in our garden after we grind it up and mix it with an equal amount of compost to innoculate the biochar with soil bacteria. But the biochar pioneers are scrambling to find economical and efficient furnaces that can produce tons of the material. Biochar was first discovered by Amazonian Indian societies a thousand years ago (terra preta), and rediscovered a decade or so ago by modern cultures desperate for ways to improve soil fertility. The new biochar retorts, such as this one that Peter demonstrates, burn biomass with high efficiency and also produce charcoal which can be added to soils, sequestering that carbon more or less permanently. The secret is wood gasification. For more curiously local perspectives, visit http://curiouslylocal.com

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• biochar
• peter hirst
• curiouslylocal
• curiously local
• new england biochar
• warner NH
• new hampshire
• local food
• biochar furnace
• biochar retort
• biochar research
• biochar and gardening
• how to make biochar
• biochar production

[georgpackard]

Zeffrin: I don't know what the "no sound" problem is...but I just tried my video out, and the sound is there. Try it again, Please. George

[fendi164]

Great vid !! But what do you do with the burnt wood stacked outside the inner barrel ? Do you mix it with the biochar? I would think that the chemical composition between the directly burnt wood and the biochar is different.

[georgpackard]

The bits of wood and twigs in the outer barrel all burn down to ash...that's what starts the heating process.

[Linguiphile]

Did he buy it somewhere or did he make it? I can weld, so I may try to put one of these together. Good point that it has to be treated before applying it to the soil.

[georgpackard]

Peter and Bob have been developing a wide range of designs and sizes of biochar retorts, and yes, they build them themselves.

George

[propositionjohnston]

Does anyone know where I could get one of these kilns (outer barrel) that would fit a 44 gallon drum.(to fit the wood to be charcoal) I'm in Australia.

Maybe I'll have to make one myself?

[georgpackard]

Good luck finding or making it! Let me know if you get it done.

George

[jsmythib]

redirecting the woodgas to augment the process on *itself is fantastic :)

[Vailhem]

Anyone have any links to the larger Adam Retort design talked about near the end of the video?

[MrTimjwilson]

Thanks for posting this. I'll be in touch

Tim Wilson

[turbodog411]

Could this char be used in a water filter system?

Thanks!

[CBlargh]

What about nitrogen and other non-carbon elements in the wood? Are these off-gassed as well, or do they stay in the chamber?

Is there a limit to how much graphite you can put on the plants, or any danger of harming them by doing so? Is it possible to separate the nitrogen from the pure carbon?... or is it even hot enough to make graphite?

I'd be curious to see a breakdown of the chemicals left in the barrel after processing.

[geopacko]

DeadlyDad: There are lots and lots of ways of making charcoal in a carbon friendly way...ie using the woodgas as secondary heat to reduce the organic matter to nearly pure carbon. But the issue with biochar is QUANTITY. Figure 10% by volume crushed charcoal to soil plus compost plus other added organic matter. . If you have a 1000 square foot garden, and you want to mix biochar into the top 1 foot of your beds.....hmmm. Peter is building units for big production. --George (film producer)

[geopacko]

DeadlyDad: There are lots and lots of ways of making charcoal in a carbon friendly way...ie using the woodgas as secondary heat to reduce the organic matter to nearly pure carbon. But the issue with biochar is QUANTITY. Figure 10% by volume crushed charcoal to soil plus compost plus other added organic matter. . If you have a 1000 square foot garden, and you want to mix biochar into the top 1 foot of your beds.....hmmm. --George (film producer)

[DeadlyDad]

Thanks for making this *extremely* informative video. I was wondering if you could comment on how easy it would be to use the Aprovecho Institutional Rocket Stove (they have a video here; look for 'Institutional Stove (Factory in a Box)') design to generate biochar.

[Trapezoidal]

@saltydog335 I mean the cleanliness of the gases coming off from making the biochar at a higher temperature as opposed to a lower one. The lower temperature char off gases dirtier, though correspondingly it maintains a lot more of its tarry, etc. compounds which are supposed to be a beneficial property of the char. How does creating the char at a higher temperature affect this? Is there a median between the two types which will be acceptably clean, though still hold onto a lot of the biogoop?

[saltydog335]

@halfthemandan DOn't know the term "Vol-Can", but this vessel is a surplus wax vat from a candle factory. This was a one-off, and I wish I knew where to get more.