[Stoves] Easiest Biochar at Home.

[ajheggie at gmail.com]

Like Neil I am in the UK and have made charcoal in numerous ways,
including making drawing charcoal the "boy scout" way by stacking
willow rods vertically in a cocoa tin then placing it in the wood
stove and retrieving it in the morning. Dr. Yuri Yudkevich described a
very much scaled up industrial version of theis over 12 years ago on
[stoves].

More recently in the last four years I have replaced my 30 year old
stove with a modern multifuel (can burn wood or coal but mine has
never burned coal) one that incorporates a number of ways to burn wood
more cleanly.

Because of the way it only introduces air (preheated) from above
burning wood and the firebox is lined with a refractory board the
firbed is maintained hot. This pyrolyses the dry wood and because the
air comes from above the pyrolysis offgas is burned first then when
the flames die down the bed of char burns out. If I keep on adding dry
wood the char builds up in the same way as any flame curtain device.

This could be removed hot or quenched and removed, though I leave it
to burn and give residual heat after I have retired to bed.

It would not take much modification to raise the stove, remove the
grate and then continually remove hot coals from the bottom whilst
maintaining a flaming fire above.

Andrew