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http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-some-Charcoal/

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How to Make some Charcoalby juggler on March 13, 2007

Table of Contents

How to Make some Charcoal .....................................................................................................

Intro: How to Make some Charcoal .............................................................................................

Step 1: Make the container ...................................................................................................

Step 2: Provide holes for gasses to escape and Burn ................................................................................

Step 3: Collect wood and take your stuff to the burn site .............................................................................

Step 4: Load it up and cover it to keep the heat in ..................................................................................

Step 5: More on trying to keep the heat in ........................................................................................

Step 6: Load the drum with wood ...............................................................................................

Step 7: Start a fire ..........................................................................................................

Step 8: Burn for a good long time ..............................................................................................

Step 9: Examine this video ...................................................................................................

Step 10: Watch out for too much smoke ..........................................................................................

Step 11: Enjoy Charcoal!! ....................................................................................................

Step 12: Updated Design of the Kooker ..........................................................................................

Step 13: Video of new kooker burning ........................................................................................... 1

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................ 1

Comments ................................................................................................................ 1
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Intro: How to Make some CharcoalI have been involved in a local school (Port land Waldorf School) which has a blacksmithing program. There have been complaints about the smell of the coal burning so I found out that charcoal can be used as the fuel instead of coal/coke. So I am building this charcoal maker so that the children can see how to blacksmith withoutcoal.There are health benefits too! Coal produces sulfer when burned which can combine with water in your lungs creating sulfuric acid (acid rain) as well as the water in ysweat. If this helps someone have a better experience blacksmithing, I will be happy.

Here I describe how I made a charcoal retort. This is also known as the "indirect" method of making charcoal. Basically you take a metal container and cook it until allthe volatile gasses leave the wood.


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Step 1:Make the containerI decided to go ahead full bore for my first charcoal attempt. Many online sources indicate that they started out with small metal containers, but I figured a 55 gallon druwould be the best bet. So I found a recycled drum merchant on craigslist, paid $25 for a drum and proceeded to cut into it.I took some 3 inch round steel tubing and made the retort tube.This is a tube which takes gasses from the wood as it is heated, and redirects them to where they can be burned to add to the heat for charcoaling the wood.You can see from the image that I made the bends using miter cuts. If you don't have the tool to make these cuts, you can use Black Pipe and fittings. That wouldincrease the cash outlay, and since I had this stuff waiting for a use, I used it.

Step 2:Provide holes for gasses to escape and BurnNext, you need to provide holes in the pipe under the drum. The point is to create a large burner-like thing.I drilled 1/4 inch holes every 3 inches in both sides of the tube. Later I thought that might not be enough so I used my die grinder to cut 3 slits in the top of the pipe so tthe gasses would be directed more directly at the drum.

Step 3:Collect wood and take your stuff to the burn siteAt first, I figured on using all pallet wood. So I loaded everything in my van to take it to the burn site.Below you can see that I have everything loaded up and ready to go


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Step 4:Load it up and cover it to keep the heat inOn my way to the burn, I realized that I did not have any way to keep the heat in the drum.So I stopped off at Lowes and bought 3 pieces of cement board at $9 each.You can see that I put a tray below the assembly in an attempt to have a low impact on the site.I did not want to burn the grass where I was doing this, and we had a copper fire place on hand.I think this detracted from the overall effeciency, however, so I would not do this again.

Step 5:More on trying to keep the heat inHere you see the cement board leaned against the assembly.I have some left over KaoWool (kiln refractory blanket) from a forge project so I draped that on top to keep the heat in the drum as much as possible. I draped chains oit to keep it on the drum


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Step 6:Load the drum with woodHere we put some wood in the drum.this is Fir heartwood which my friend uses to heat his home. They are mill ends from a plywood mil l.We filled the drum that much.

Step 7:Start a firePile wood up under the drum and set it ablaze.An old indian showed me how to start a fire without flint, steel, paper or tinder.He called it a weed burner and it's fuel is propane.It works real well.


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Step 8:Burn for a good long timewe lit the fire at 10:30AM and did not see gasses come out of the tube below until about 3PM....We wound up burning about 5 pallets, plus 2 moving boxes full of scraps from the school's woodshop.Probably about 150 lbs or so.There is about 120Lbs of wood inside the drum.not as efficient as I had hoped...

Step 9:Examine this videoit's a good step to watch video
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-some-Charcoal/step9/examine-this-video/


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Step 10:Watch out for too much smokethis really does not smoke much. See the picture.

Step 11:Enjoy Charcoal!!I really can't believe this worked!Enjoy some awesome home made charcoal!!

for more information enjoy these google results:Making Charcoal

Step 12:Updated Design of the KookerI decided that even though we were successful, that the process could use a major improvement.The first burn lasted about 6 hours and consumed what seemed like a lot of wood.I figured if I insulated the space around the Barrel that the heat would concentrate more on the container and the result would be faster conversion time and less woodburned.I was right.Here are pictures of my updated burner. The walls are one inch thick refractory cement. I used about 6.5 bags of refractory which weigh 55 lbs each. (So now the kiln

retort weighs at least 350 pounds!!)You can see in the photos the steel structure and the refractory walls. I welded 1/4 inch round bar between the members as rebar and also tied chickenwire to those bfor supporting the refractory cement.The front is bolted on so that it can be removed when the barrel wears out and needs to be replaced.The floor is just the ground, and I laid down a piece of hardy-backer cement board to protect the concrete there. I added a hinged plate of steel there as a "fire box" doIt is about 1/4 inch thick and when closed there is about 4 inches open below it.When burning it gets red hot as do the steel members of the structure!!I also added a hole in the top as a place where the smoke can emit . I plan to add an insulated chimney to it there in the hopes that the fumes coming out can have asecondary burn to perhaps make less smoke. The chimney will need to be very well insulated for this to occur, so I plan to make it a double-wall arrangement probabl10-12 inches diameter outside with a 6-8 inch diameter inside pipe, and fill the gap between with kaowool or perlite.The next step will be a short video of this one burning.
http://www.google.com/search?q=making+charcoal&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


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Step 13:Video of new kooker burningSo This is a definite improvement - once I lit the fire below, after 10 minutes, gas was burning from the tube. After 2.5 hours gas had stopped coming out and I let the fbelow die completely.In the morning I discovered that 100% of the contents had converted to charcoal!!

The pile of wood in the picture below is what I took from to burn in the firebox. It is mostly still there!So I don't know for sure, but I think I burned less wood in the firebox than was in the barrel, which is a huge improvement! The next burn will have more science. We wweigh the wood placed in the barrel, and note the type of wood. We will also weigh the wood burned in the firebox and then weigh the charcoal produced and time theprocess again. This process should give us a much better idea of the efficiency of the improved process.Thanks for watching!
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-some-Charcoal/step13/Video-of-new-kooker-burning/


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Comments

50 comments Add Comment view all 62 commen

butcherboy says: Dec 20, 2008. 1:53 AM REP

If you were to forego the chimney and the gas retort/burner and instead routed the gas into a basic distil lation apparatus you should get primarily methanolwhich, I think, could probably yield a more efficient return of energy to the system (in regards to a supplemental heat source).

romedeiros1970 says: Aug 6, 2009. 9:40 PM REPI do not think that is correct, butcherboy. With all due respect, I believe the primary outputs are carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas, both of which arehighly flamable. They can be collected and used as fuel, or can be redirected as fuel for the carbonization as done here. I guess it depends on the goathe process.

butcherboy says: Aug 8, 2009. 11:36 AM REPGood point, though IMHO, if not redirecting the gases for system efficiency, distilling the methanol might be easier to accomplished than gas storagfor the purpose of getting a second fuel product, at least as far as a backyard charcoal set-up is concerned that is. A simple reflux still vs. pressuriztanks is the scenario I'm envisioning.

romedeiros1970 says: Aug 9, 2009. 10:27 AM REPSorry, but I think I was unclear. One of my points is that I do not think that methanol is produced in pyrolysis. I think some methane is produced

but I could be wrong. The reason I want to be sure about that is methanol can be used to make biodiesel, and I would not want any of ourbiodiesel making members to think methanol can be produced by pyrolysis. Again, I could be wrong, but I have not found any references tomethanol production in the literature. I do like your points about either using a reflux or a pressurized tank. I wonder if armature pyrolyzers canproduce more gas than is needed. That would be great!

butcherboy says: Aug 9, 2009. 6:36 PM REPActually methane is the main volatile released during pyrolysis. Most of the CO released occurs during gasification, which actually occursafter combustion (which occurs after pyrolysis given an oxidizing agent). Methanol is also known as wood alcohol because it used to primarbe produced in a still similar to the charcoal set up. The key was sequestering the wood from as much O2 as possible and thus minimizingcombustion and allowing the volatiles to be distilled. Another useful product of the process is of course charcoal, which is essentially theremaining carbon matrix of the wood (less O2, less CO, more C...carbon that is!)
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Darrell Knight says: Jan 17, 2011. 8:15 PM REPSo is there a way to make moonshine (for fuel purposes) at the same time we are making the charcoal?

romedeiros1970 says: Jan 18, 2011. 10:18 AM REPTheoretically, perhaps, but not in an economically feasible way to my knowledge.

Darrell Knight says: Jan 18, 2011. 12:53 PM REPLMWAO, I understand, but while we're making charcoal, wouldn't it be more feasible to bottle the spirits of the ummmmm, vehiclor not? Just wondering, I am not able to make charcoal as of yet. Something in the lease at the apartments that say no making o

charcoal on the grounds or something, lol. I was just wondering, thanks and have a great day.

Darrell Knight says: Jan 18, 2011. 10:23 AM REPI didn't that the indians in the old days had propane.

blazingpencilsdotcom says: Feb 24, 2009. 9:35 AM REPThe charcoal can be an awesome additive for compost & gardening, see terra preta on Wikipedia. You would need to soak the charcoal in urine, or compotea or something (grey water?) and then work it into your soil, supposedly it will start a natural carbon capture / sequestration cycle that lasts hundreds ofyears.. Also might look into having the gases escape the cooking container downward so they get burned in the fire & contribute to the fire energy - goodnews -instead of offgassing into the atmosphere - bad news. I wanna try using an old 275 gal oil tank (like a pig smoker) as the outer fire box, and have (2 3) 55 gal drums inside it with feed stock. I would like to use wood chips from tree trimming for the feed stock, as it is in plentiful free supply. i would like torotate the drums out of the fire box as soon as cooked and insert newly filled ones to keep the process more constant. any comments appreciated.

comander01 says: Oct 6, 2009. 12:03 PM REPI'm not sure if this would work, but try making a rotating stand with about 3 55 gal drums. As the wood burns, it releases gasses, making the resultingcharcoal light than wood. The heavier weight of the wood on top would rotate i t down into the burner.

Superstormj says: Nov 30, 2010. 5:18 PM REPThat's a good idea, all that would require is the weighing of the wood put in each barrel to be the same, and then just stand back and let it do it'sthing.

cody316 says: Oct 7, 2010. 11:26 AM REPthis is kinda new to me so tell me if this is stupid... could i just put some of my scrap 2x4s in my 55 gallon drum and throw it on my fire pit and BLAMO i gotcharcoal??

discowhale says: Aug 31, 2010. 7:51 PM REPCool idea. I'm filing this one for my TEOTWAWKI knowledge. . . It's a good way to get charcoal to work and forge any metal. And it would be a good way tomake a product for bartering in a survival economy.

Esmagamus says: Aug 12, 2010. 5:18 PM REP$25 for a steel drum. Are you mad, dear Sir? I saw a lot of thick walled 55 gallon drums in a factory today. I asked a worker what they did with the old drumand he said they gave them away.

boogieman697 says: Jun 2, 2010. 5:33 PM REPwow 25$ for a drum i paid 5$ for a water tank at the dump which is almost twice as big and made of thicker steel

RedneckAsian says: Dec 15, 2009. 1:28 PM REPhow nessecary is it to keep the heat in

abadfart says: Jun 29, 2008. 2:02 PM REPyou also use charcoal in black powder

Radar252 says: Aug 22, 2008. 7:33 PM REPi did not know that is it a dye to make it black?

Kaelessin says: Aug 26, 2008. 8:05 AM REPyes and no lol. . . it is what makes black powder black but it has other more important purposes in black powder. It's really porous even at themicroscopic level having had all kinds of stuff burned out of it. This allows the sulfur and the saltpeter to be bound together into these holes whichreally helps the burn. Being flammable itself, the charcoal also acts as a fuel though the sulfur is fuel too.
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romedeiros1970 says: Aug 6, 2009. 9:41 PM REPCharcoal is also the main ingredient in mascara!

OldOwlIronworks says: Jul 25, 2009. 9:03 AM REPExcellent Instructable, this has always been an aspiration of mine, to make charcoal.

wenui says: Jul 11, 2009. 8:45 AM REP

I suggest you look at these pages are in Spanish. Can be translated using GOOGLE TRANSLATER.

http://www.taringa.net/posts/recetas-y-cocina/2195482/Horno-mixto-o-de-alto-rendimiento.html

http://www.agmer.org.ar/secretarias/educacion/ambiental/soluciones/pdf/como 20construirse%% 20UN% 20horno% 20mixto.pdf

Muzhik says: Jul 2, 2009. 11:19 AM REPIf you want to make activated charcoal for filtering water, etc., take the charcoal from this process, soak ("treat") it in sulfuric acid for a few minutes, then puit back in the kooker for another few hours. (You can get the sulfuric acid from old car batteries.) After this, crush the resulting charcoal into granules. NOTyou don't need ACTIVATED charcoal to filter water, air, etc., but it is more efficient and effective.

ijt25 says: May 27, 2009. 6:25 AM REPOut of interest, how efficient was the new burner in comparison with the uninsulated one?

maxa says: May 18, 2008. 3:14 PM REPthat is so cool i am going to make one how do you know if it is done

Rishnai says: May 26, 2008. 10:27 PM REPIt would seem that when gasses have stopped coming out of the tube, that means it 's all gone from the charcoal, therefore it's done. I assume that if yoopen it and find anything that's not totally charcoal, it's not done.

lucek says: Aug 1, 2008. 10:23 AM REPyou don't want to open it up t ill its completely cool (not saying you dumb but there are people who would and I'd prefer they didn't go to theemergency room with 3rd degree burns from a flair up.)

Rishnai says: Aug 1, 2008. 5:40 PM REPExcellent point. I should have mentioned that. I've lost eyebrows just from opening the grill. Wouldn't want to find out f irsthand what happenswhen you open a hot charcoal cooker.

gillibiabtiag says: Jan 20, 2009. 8:04 PM REPThe other danger with opening it before it is totally cold is that the only thing keeping the charcoal from turning to ash is the fact that there isno oxygen in the tank. If you open it while still warm, the charcoal can start turning to ash VERY QUICKLY. This is a lame way of losing a loof charcoal. One interesting thing that you can do with these is to put gnarled wood into it (old pine roots are awesome). When they turn tocharcoal, all the twisty bits of the grain show up really nicely, and when properly coated, makes an awesome living room ornament (especiaabove the fireplace :D).

lennyb says: Mar 14, 2007. 6:56 AM REPi did something like this a few years ago for a gunpowder experiment . i needed willow charcoal so i cut some small sticks of willow into 2 inch chunks thenput them in a 70mm steel film can 3inches high by 3 inchs across i put a single nail hole in the top for a vent and chucked it in the fi replace. in the morning had nice charcoal. the gunpowder experiment didnt work though cauise i couldnt get any saltpeter .:(

static says: Jan 13, 2009. 9:51 PM REPRead volume 5 of the foxfire series. I recall it detailed how those not near saltpeter deposits processed urine to obtain the Potassium nitrate needed to

manufacture black powder.

lucek says: Aug 1, 2008. 10:33 AM REPstump remover is between 50% and 90% sodium nitrate, or in some brands potassium nit rate.

Derin says: Nov 10, 2008. 9:26 AM REPYou do not have to use a miter saw to make those mitered ends.Any saw that can cut metal and some skill and common sense can do the job whencombined. :)
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Morpheus says: Sep 5, 2008. 6:52 PM REPGreat Instructable! I use a small version of this to make char-cloth using a 1/2 pint paint can with a lid that has a nail hole in the top of the can. I wire on thelid. I use 100% cotton cloth (ratty old t-shirts work great)cut into 2x2 inch squares and stacked in piles of 50(about 150 to 200 squares per can). Put it in thefire (bbq, fireplace etc.) The hole will vent gas that ignites and gives you a great gauge for when the reduction is complete; the flame from the hole goes ouwhen it's done. Put the nail back in the hole with pliers, and let it cool completely. Take off lid: E voila! Char-cloth stacked and ready to make fire with yourflint and steel. Peel off a piece and go for it. I have also done this putting the can on the kitchen stove, and lighting the vented gas with a match. Again, theflame goes out when the reduction is complete. Put the nail in the vent hole, cool, and use. Just don't let yer wife catch you doing it . She didn't like me usinher spotless oven top for my "stupid man-stuff"!

crcarter says: Aug 30, 2008. 4:41 AM REPHave you had a chance to collect yield informat ion on the updated design?

Radar252 says: Aug 22, 2008. 7:31 PM REPcool dude i like charcoal my cousin has a charcoal grill

lucek says: Aug 1, 2008. 11:31 AM REPjust thinking I have an old coal furnace converted to natural gas. when I upgrade it, it may well be suited to this application. just hook the water pipe to thegas line and unseal the door's

Derin says: Jul 13, 2008. 1:22 PM REPto overclock ANY carbon fire,add some cow poop(eww) disgusting but IT WORKS!!!we did it for a winter and now we are burning 100 less tons ofcoal/wood!just make sure the thing is DRY and it burns hotter while using less fuel

maxa says: May 27, 2008. 6:31 AM REPthanks

Poppa Chubby says: Apr 17, 2008. 11:28 PM REPI like this idea, I've also seen it done in a hole in the ground. A large fie is built, then a barrel with holes in the end is put on the fire with the holes down. I'dbet you could make fair dollar selling alder charcoal for cooking, I pay plenty for mesquite lump charcoal. Nice job. BTW, your backyard looks like mine :)

NJB says: Apr 23, 2008. 1:07 PM REPInterestingly enough, the traditional (read original/ancient) method of charcoal burning was to dig a medium sized hole in the ground, saving the turf frothe top, light a fire in the hole and get it burning fairly strongly, then add wood all around it and cover the whole lot with turf (grass side down) to the poiof practically smothering it, the heat would then turn the wood into charcoal with not enough air being supplied to burn it. I tried it with my Dad when I wyounger with mixed results.

technodude92 says: Apr 18, 2008. 8:33 PM REP

wouldn't this bee more efficient if the wood to be charcoal-ed was cut and not in solid chunks? also, when burning is the outside cement of the charcoal-ifier(?) hot to the touch?

casey321b says: Apr 17, 2008. 8:06 PM REPdo u think if I widdled a stick into a cylinder and put it in a fire it would come out round? or would it break?

funwithfire325 says: Jul 31, 2007. 12:19 PM REPyou could make a mini one...... ..

juggler says: Dec 20, 2007. 4:10 PM REPYou can just throw a can with holes in the lid in a fire to make artist's stick charcoal. It's fun! so, yeah. mini.

masterochicken says: Dec 20, 2007. 3:21 PM REPWood chip box in a bbq

voultsides says: Jul 27, 2007. 10:50 AM REPi use used cooking oil (i get it for free from the taverns) and wood chips to start the gassing procedure. it's smokeless when fairly ventilated with hightemperature burn (aprox 450 C) also have the double barrel retort config great Video
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15/15

bowmaster says: May 27, 2007. 5:37 PM REPuse a fan to make the fire hotter

juggler says: Apr 16, 2007. 1:18 PM REPI'm working on updating this project. I agree with all who said that I should get the fire to go on top of the drum. I will also try one of the concepts from the"rocket stove" movement. I will add a way to make the incoming combustion air get a slight pre-heat

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