[Gasification] CHARCOAL PYROPILE

Tue Feb 21 14:41:01 CST 2012

Dear Anand and All:

Depending on the type of charcoal needed, you don't need a kiln at all.  the biomass should have a moisture content less than 20% and cut into small enough pieces so you can make a reasonably dense pile.  (If you have a pile of slash, resulting from cutting a tree down, our brush saw attachment for chain saws will cut limbs up to 2-1/2" in diameter as small as you want the charcoal pieces).

If you make a pyramid of scrap biomass (sticks, twigs, chips, pellets, cobs, ...) and light it ON TOP, the cellulose will form a combustible gas, leaving about 20% charcoal from the lignin.  The top layer of charcoal will ignite the next layer, and each layer. Until allis converted to charcoal, the rising deoxygenated gases protecting the charcoal layers above. 

If you put wet newspaper under the pile, when the last layer is converted, the rising steam will quench the pile of charcoal. I call this a CHARCOAL PYROPILE.

Depending on the moisture content of the biomass pile, the temperature of the charcoal will reach 500-700C.  I believe HughMcLaughlin said it was partially activated, but I hope he'll comment.  

I hope that farmers in particular will develop this method for converting waste biomass to valuable charcoal fertilizer.

So no kiln needed.

Tom Reed

Thomas B Reed 

On Feb 20, 2012, at 9:23 AM, Anand Karve <adkarve at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Darius,
> if you want to char biomass, you must have a kiln for charring it. The kilns are mainly of two types. In the oven and retort kiln, the biomass is filled into a closed vessel which is heated from outside. The pyrolysis gas escapes through a vent in the vessel, leaving the charred matter behind. The renaissance painters used to make their charcoal sticks by using this process. Also Yuri Yudkevich in Russia uses this type of a kiln for making charcoal on a commercial scale. In the TLUD type of kin, which is generally used by most others, the biomass is filled into the kiln, which is open at the top and which also has holes in the bottom for allowing fresh air into the kiln. The biomass is ignited from the top, so that the fire traverses downwards. The air needed for maintaining the fire comes into the kiln through the holes at the base of the kiln. It rises up and the oxygen in the air is consumed by the burning biomass. Therefore this kiln is called the Top Lit Up-Draft (TLUD) kiln.    
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
> 
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 9:17 PM, darius tamizi <darius_tamizi at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Mr. Wu, Mr.Karve
> 
> Thank you very much for the paper and explantion. I can undestand the theory, but I do not know how the apparatus looks like (exp. Oven with N2) and how can I do all the explanation without the apparatus. Could you help me more about it?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Darius
> 
> 
> Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:21:15 +0800
> From: adkarve at gmail.com
> To: gasification at lists.bioenergylists.org
> Subject: Re: [Gasification] Active charcoal
> 
> Dear Darius,
>   Normally one needs relatively high temperature to make active charcoal, but the pretreatment with calcium chloride allows us to make active charcoal even at relatively low temperatures. We make charcoal from light biomass like agricultural waste and use a TLUD type kiln. You would have to conduct experiments using your biomass and your process of charring to see if this pretreatment works in your case or not. 
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:01 PM, Darius <darius_tamizi at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Dr. A.D. Karve
> 
> Charring material are rubber wood.
> 
> Could you tell me the detail process?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Darius
> 
> On 2/18/2012 9:56 PM, Anand Karve wrote:
> Dear Darius,
> what material are you charring? We make our charcoal from leaves of sugarcane, which are discarded during the process of sugarcane harvest. By soaking the leaves in 5% solution of calcium chloride, dying them and then converting them into char in a TLUD kiln gives us active charcoal. We have not tested this process in the case of woody material. Perhaps you can do this experiment. 
> Yours
> A.D.Karve
> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 10:14 PM, Darius <darius_tamizi at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>  
> Is somebody  there can help me to convert our char into active charcoal?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Darius
> 
>  
> Dr. A.D. Karve
> Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> -- 
> ***
> Dr. A.D. Karve
> Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
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> Dr. A.D. Karve
> Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
> 
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