Producing Charcoal with a Barrel Kiln
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Adam Downing, Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Agent, demonstrates the process of loading the kiln to make charcoal out of ailanthus and walnut timber. While log length is not important except for ease of loading, logs/wood thickness is important. Pieces of similar diameter/thickness should be loaded to insure evenly charred pieces at the end of the burning process. Smaller diameter/thickness pieces combined with bigger pieces of wood will result in lower yields as as the smaller pieces burn up and leave ash and the larger pieces do not have time to completely char resulting in unfinished pieces , called “brands”.. The kiln should be loaded as tighlty as possible. The more wood that can be fit into the kiln, the greater the charcoal yield will be. Once the wood has turned into charcoal, it's necessary to close off the kiln. This involves starving the fire of oxygen. Sand is spread around the bottom barrel where the holes are located. The top barrel or afterburner is removed and the lid is secured on the bottom barrel which contains the charred wood. After everything has cooled the following day, the charcoal can be removed safely. It's best not to handle the pieces too much as they are very fragile and fall apart easily. Large chunks are preferred by most grillers for the simple fact of staying ontop of the charcoal grate in their grill. For more information on charcoal production, please visit this website: web1.cnre.vt.ed...
Very easy way to show how to use 55gal drums.. everything else I’ve seen requires welding and such which I don’t know how to do. Thank you so much for this!
My neighbours are going to love me.
Thx guys. From all the methods on youtube I chose yours, and i did it with 2x60l drums. Worked awesome for my first try, only a few undone pieces of wood. I guess I have to leave it longer next time, or maybe I shouldn't pack it so tight against the walls of the barrel since the problem occured only on some of the wood that was touching the sides. By the way, to make the sealing of the lower barrel holes easier, I welded on some M12 nuts to 12mm holes, then I only have to put in some short M12 bolts. Works like a charm.
That bolt/nut idea is genius. I've been watching these videos wondering about how I could use a better method than just shoveling dirt and sand... Think I found a winner here. GG
update of my last post: I just leave the thing "burning" a bit longer before I smother it and i use thiner pieces of wood (max 10cm in diameter, but mostly less). Also I try that the pieces of wood are of a consistent size. That produces no unburned wood at all. About the holes, ye, just dont forget to use some leather gloves, those nuts get hot like nuts (pun intended). Also, sometimes the fire in my afterburner chokes, so I need to lean the afterburner for it to get a bit more air...Still gotta sort that one out, I'm thinking about some air doors of some sort to be welded on the afterburner... I want it to be adjustable, not fixed.
Well if you want it adjustable, the simplest method would be to cut out some holes, take some flat bar and rivit it an inch below the hole, and then cut some tin to slide in between the bars and barrel. Boom, adjustable vent holes. Won't be an exact science, but since you're talking afterburner vent-holes it should be fine.
Dude, you just gave me another project. To be able to bend stuff i need a bender...Plans already made, some of the material gathered... This might go a long way before ill have adjustable vent holes, but stuff will be made along the way :D
Good luck bro. Tell me how it turns out!
great video! for vents, I put 5 3/4" pipe nipples around to bottom. and seal the with a cap when its done. thanks
All the smoke when you lidded it was a clue that the charring wasn't done! The wood should have been "chunked" to prevent the channeling and the uncharred wood around the outside. Also, I just prop a barrel up on bricks to let air in the (open) bottom instead of making holes in the barrel. When the charring is done, remove bricks so the barrel seals against the ground, and then lid it. No extra sand needed to seal.
Thanks fpr sharing. After closing the barrel how much time do you have to wait yo open it again? How much charcoal did you get in terms of percenrage?
I must have screwed something up when making mine because when I put the afterburner on, it amplified the flame like crazy! It literally looked like a jet engine coming out the top. My hunch is I didn't vent the afterburner enough... could that be the culprit? I'll check in the morning to see if I got charcoal but I doubt it.
That happened to me as well. First time making charcoal with two barrels felt like a terrifying roller coaster ride. Once you're strapped in there's no turning back, but then you grow a pair and continue with the next burn and the next. These gentlemen make it look too easy. I use this method thanks to them. Anyone doing this as a side hustle familiar with what's needed to be in compliance with health and safety regulations?
My hometown (semi rural) actually lists making of charcoal in their list of activities not allowed.
howdy. do you have a video on how to make the large kiln in the background? if not would you make one?
+Cursed Rebels MC Here is a link that may help you with building a kiln. I hope this helps. Design and instructions for making a New Hampshire-style metal charcoal kiln from readily-available materials (with appendix) under Charcoal Making Resources (left side list) at:
www.web3.cnre.vt.edu/frec/charcoal/
How come the smoke is dispearing like that ? How is that possible?
and quickly burns the impurities up in the smoke and it makes it clear It's called an afterburner Didn't you watch the video son?
I ain't knockin yalls method but can't you just fill the barrel up with wood, cap it off with a hole in the lid then build a fire around the barrel to heat the contents inside to produce charcoal?
+my opinion doesn't matter By my knowledge, that´s how you make tar actually.
+my opinion doesn't matter
Yes, you can essentially do as you describe. The video demonstrates the
“direct burn” method in which you use some of the raw material to fuel
the process. What you describe is called “indirect burn” and is a perfectly
acceptable method with some advantages. The fire on the outside of the
barrel would typically need containment of some sort to get enough heat
to the barrel full of wood until the wood-gas is released and ignited. This has been done by placing a smaller barrel inside a larger barrel such that the heat is better contained/directed to the barrel full of wood.
I use the same method except I pack the wood in a 30gallon drum vented just like this one. I set 3 bricks on edge on the ground around it, then lower an open-ended 55 gallon drum (both ends removed) over the 30 gal so the 50 gal sits on the bricks, higher than the air vents of the 30. The 55 gal ends up sitting about 8" above the top of the 30 and channels oxygen up over the top of the 30 and acts as an afterburner. After top lighting it will smoke a bit, but once it gets going, the afterburner produces a flame that remains exactly consistent throughout the entirety of the burn. An hour or two. When that flame begins to change, the burn is done. I remove the 55 gal and place a closed ended 55 gal over the 30 and twist it down into the dirt. No smoke at all. Works great.
Interesting. I use a closed by very slightly vented 16-gallon drum inside a 55-gallon drum and do the burn all around the smaller one. It literally bakes the wood, and has no white ash. Very high quality. Am now moving to putting the 30-gallon drum inside an 85-gallon drum, same process. After doing a lot of experimenting, I have concluded this is the lowest tech, lowest effort way to make the highest possible quality charcoal. We run a sawmill and have endless amounts of hardwood scrap and slab wood, so this is another use of the byproducts on top of the usual firewood.
Actually campfires lit from the top do work and work well, produce less smoke and create a more even burn.
campfires are terribly inefficient compared to kilns and you will produce much, much less kilograms or cubic feet of charcoal from any given amount of hardwood. With a good kiln you can easily harvest anywhere from 50-100% more, to 10x as much charcoal by weight or volume, depending on how big of a “bonfire” charcoal cook (covered with mud) you are doing and how experienced you are. Stainless steel charcoal kilns are highly efficient compared to anything but commercial charcoal production facilities and methods.
by he way this kiln in this video is NOT one of the high efficiency design. All the more efficient designs incorporate a double walled (double barrel really) design. With a large stainless barrel and a slightly smaller stainless steel barrel inside of it with just the right amount of holes in the inner barrel (very little airflow) and holes in the outer barrel to allow full but highly controlled combustion of materials filled in the void between barrels which is fully burned to white ash. It takes about ⅓ or a teeny bit more than ⅓ of the amount of dry, cured wood to burn in the outer barrel in the space between barrels by volume to make any given amount of hardwood charcoal and this ratio is incorporated into the design of the kiln (the volume of the barrels should work out that the volume of the void equals about ⅓ to a little more than a ⅓ but less than half of the volume of the inner barrel. Look around online you can find videos of guys making the real deal kilns. You can use regular steel barrels but they can hold on to chemicals more and they definitely burn out and go to hell about 25x faster than stainless steel so in the long and even medium run you will save a ton of cash and time and cutting tools etc with stainless steel. Maybe make one steel one first to practice and then gift it and the make your stainless kiln. It’s worth it. The best hardwood charcoal you can get ahold of doesn’t hold a candle to what you can make in your own backyard with a killer kiln and you can play around until you get it dialed in to produce charcoal with just the right amount of smokiness aka the natural volatile essential and other oils in the wood that aren’t vaporized by the carefully controlled temps and ventilation of the kiln. You can make anything from super smoky greasy hardwood charcoal for high temp searing with amazing smoky flavor all the way right up close to true activated charcoal-if you a little bit of activated charcoal salts and get the temp super high by burning super dry cured hardwood instead of dry pine scraps (what you want to usually burn regularly as it burns at the right temp in these designs for making hardwood charcoal) in the combustion chamber, you can get really, really close to activated charcoal. Call it activated charcoal mild. It can be probably something like 80% of the way there to commercial activated charcoal if you’re not scared and you get your kiln really rocking. Which you can do with nice decent gauge stainless barrels btw.
I just finished my second 55 gallon barrel, and will open it up tomorrow. I chose to do mine a little different. I filled the drum with red oak and much as I could fit in, put the lid on the barrel. The only hole in the barrel is a 1/2 inch hole ( in the lid) with a 4 inch long pipe nipple screwed in for venting. The barrel is laid on its side on two pipes held up high enough to build a fire underneath. The advantage none of my charcoal has ever been on fire. The disadvantage it takes a lot of wood (for heat), and time (probably-16 hours of hard burning).
How many burns can you get from a burn barrel before having to replace it ? With the high heat a 55 gallon barrel will not last for to many burns before warping and or burning out, the cost here is around $25.00 for a metal 55 gallon barrel, so is it really going to be worth the cost ?Johnny b.
I sell u all u want 4. 20 $
i could have sworn the title said producing chocolate...
Might as well have been... I didn't see any charcoal
How long after you shut the barrel shut does the kiln continue to produce smoke? I'm trying to make charcoal with this method in a residential area.
I really like this because it doesn’t require wasting wood as an external heat source.
i know I am kinda off topic but does anybody know a good place to watch newly released series online?
@Muhammad Dominik Lately I have been using FlixZone. Just google for it =)
@Muhammad Dominik i use flixzone. You can find it by googling =)
Tks a lot. Love it. Very easy. I'll start doing it soon in the farm.
What type of wood work best for charcoal for grilling so once you start the charcoal it keeps burning without going out / turning off please help
konstantine reutov I’ve found a hardwood works best. Like mesquite, citrus wood, hickory ect... woods like pine and cedar work, but the charcoal falls apart into powder a little too easily. Most of my charcoal right now is cedar since that’s what I had on hand. It works, but if you have a choice use a hardwood so your charcoal is more firm and dense.
hardwoods like oaks and hickory work best. we make our charcoal from mixed oaks and hickory, and they burn hot and long
I guess it turned to ash since he never showed the results the next morning
thanks guys, very cool...Do you have books to show how to make one?
thanks...
no one will make such a furnace for heating ....
you can warm a house or a greenhouse and get charcoal
very cool. thank you
to divert the flow of smoke downside to make it a downdraft combustion system is nice.
How many hours do you need to burn the wood ?
Anyone know if you can do this with green wood?
Deer John I’ve put green wood in my kiln and I couldn’t tell the difference. All of the moisture and such burns out just leaving the carbon, so it should be the same either way... I think this method might be more difficult with green wood though because it has to burn and stay lit.. when I use green wood I put it in a 5gal drum I have and set it in my kiln or a fire pit and cook it. That’d probably work best.
so the smoke you made disappear in the beginning is trippled at the end when sealed it off , , , this definetly can't be done in an urban area
Is it possible to use the barrel bands to connect the afterburner barrel to the retort barrel? It windy here and I'd be concerned the top will blow off without a method to hold it on during the burn.
I use three fishing magnets to keep it in place
Hi , I have a big bur oak/white oak tree that need to come down ! Can I used this type tree to make charcoal ? Thanks for reply greatly !
Any species will make charcoal. The denser the wood, the heavier (longer burning) the charcoal
very dangerous unreliable method if you ask me. I've seen better more efficient options using much of a similar design.
Hey guys, could anyone tell me hos important is dryness of the wood? Could I use freshly cut wood or should it rest and dry for a certain period first? Thank you 😀
Use wood at same moisture content as wood stove. About 12%. There are cheap meters to buy if you need one.
HOW DRY IS THIS WOOD?
The wood rested for 2 months or so before it goes into the kiln.
too much white ash
Very good
Biochar
Excellent. I learned something from watching this.
+Barnekkid Glad to hear it!
I've seen better ways to do this on UA-cam.
RBT me too. But this is a good way to simply make a large batch of charcoal with 55gal drums without a lot of tooling or welding. There is an audience for this style for sure.
+my opinion doesn't matter You would burn twice as much wood(or more)prob more)
and the bad chemicals would be left in the coal to produce the same amount of charcoal