An Interesting Design For Constant-Flow Charcoal / BioChar Production..

Charcoal is made by cooking wood without air - pyrolysis. But how to make it continuously? Well, here's an idea for you..
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[@tonywatson987]

A great idea, Tim, with the potential to harvest either the waste heat from the chimney to heat your home/drying chamber, or the gases from the pyrolisation (as others have said). Rather than an auger, a continuous double chain with angle-iron welded across to make a conveyor would have the rollers and bearings protected from the heat, plus the structure could all be made of blocks, rather than a steel cylinder. Really looking forward to what your inventive mind comes up with!

[@ka0skontrol504]

This is actually an excellent idea. Also, there shouldn't be a need to drop the charcoal in water if it spends enough time traveling through the tube past the hot point. A long section of aluminum tubing after the heating chamber point should be sufficient for heat dissipation. If it's long enough, it should sap enough heat from the charcoal for it to exit safely without ignition. You could also add a water cooling tube spiralled around the aluminum tubing section to accelerate the cooling process similar to water cooling the CPU in a gaming computer.

[@robertgoff6479]

Look into process tunnels. Generally these are inclined to use gravity, with paddles inside to agitate the process material. They're generally more reliable in these environments than augers.

[@calebjowens]

I was thinking something like a chain pump would be good

[@kyoteecasey]

We have one at work for activating lime that uses gravity and rotation to carry the spent lime from the cooler feed end down to the firing end, cooking it along the way

[@orionfleming6783]

I was just about to mention that… we have augers in our boiler ash systems and they jam super easy. A rotating drum would work significantly better

[@marsogreen2411]

I fully agree that particles need agitation in order to allow full exposure and escape for gases

[@mechanicssa]

We already tried that design. My Dad build a continuous Retort system. Go look at Hive Carbon in South Africa. No moving parts inside the combustion chamber is best. We build it vertical. Its all about the time exposed at a certain heat. My Dads system had been proven and been working for years now.😊

[@mohaje11]

An idea for stopping the charcoal combustion on the end would be to extend the pipe with the auger so that the charcoal has time to cool down before it exits the tube. It would require a quite long tube and auger, but if you only heat a third of the pipe it should work, this way you dont need to change the whole system, and the motor would also be placed further away from the heat....

[@percymerlin]

Agree. Rather than waste the heat have the hot charcoal proceed along another tube that is adjacent to the original tube with the charcoal chips transferring heat to the original tube. So that the output of the tube is now by the input hopper of the wood chips. Ok there are issues like transferring the charcoal for one tube to the other and sorting out the proximity of the still hot charcoal near the wood chips in the hopper. Spraying water on the super hot charcoal could be risky as that is one of the processes of making ‘town gas’ in the old day where it generated hydrogen. Your continuous charcoal process is an excellent idea and will have challenges definitely worthwhile.

[@Berkeloid0]

@@percymerlin If you put the second pipe+auger below the first, the charcoal could fall out of the first down into the second, which then pushes it back the way it came, with the heat rising up to the original auger. If the second pipe was longer or shorter could dump out the cooler charcoal further away from the input hopper. However I'm not sure recovering the heat would be practical. You'd either have to remove insulation below the first auger (allowing heat to escape), so the residual heat could travel from the bottom auger up to the top auger, or put both augers inside the insulated box, which over time would cause the second one to head up to the temperature of the first, defeating the purpose of having the second cooling auger in the first place! I'm not sure there's an easy way you could passively cool the charcoal while also putting that heat back into the system. However Tim was talking about using waste heat to warm his house, so maybe that's the way to go.

[@percymerlin]

@@Berkeloid0 I agree with your thinking. The heat transfer needs some serious thermal workings( to put it technically 🤔) . Since I do not know the distance between the kiln and the house that could be a serious driver. While nowhere near all the heat could be transferred from one pipe to the other it could act as a prewarmer/ cooler. Then there would the issue of a heat exchanger to then transfer the heat to another medium to be piped to the house using insulated pipes. A serious cost consideration. Maybe the compromise is to extend the auger like you say but have that pipe wrapped in a heat exchanger to cool the charcoal and the hot water to the house. It is a fascinating project, where I personally feel there will have to be a lot of compromises just make it work. The auger bearings being a biggie. Needing to have something that works over time and losing out on the bearing friction.

[@haroldshawhan3917]

I had this idea too. You could even have a tank of water surrounding the extended auger tube or a high-volume fan blowing air on the auger tube (with fins) to facilitate cooling.

[@ahmdabdallah5811]

@@percymerlin What Is Islam? Islam is not just another religion. It is the same message preached by Moses, Jesus and Abraham. Islam literally means ‘submission to God’ and it teaches us to have a direct relationship with God. It reminds us that since God created us, no one should be worshipped except God alone. It also teaches that God is nothing like a human being or like anything that we can imagine. The concept of God is summarized in the Quran as: { “Say, He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He does not give birth, nor was He born, and there is nothing like Him.”} (Quran 112:1-4) Becoming a Muslim is not turning your back to Jesus. Rather it’s going back to the original teachings of Jesus and obeying him

[@nutwiss]

Tim - have you thought of a chain-conveyor instead of an auger? It might be more practical and would not have the potential to crush the friable charcoal like an auger. By chain conveyor, I mean a simple, fireproof conveyor belt made of a series of loops of chain welded together in parallel to make a wide belt. Edit: This idea would utterly fail to exclude any oxygen, but would at least roast the wood quite nicely.

[@stevenbryant3055]

Just put it in a housing and that solves the oxygen exclusion issue

[@schwuzi]

I don't know the word in english, what I could find is scraper floor. We have them on our manure trailers for instance. 2 chains running in parallel with a U shaped iron profile across them every 30-50cm. The chains are driven by a shaft with special pulleys on them that grip the chain links. I would try to find an old manure spreader trailer and salvage the parts needed.

[@quakxy_dukx]

@@schwuzi I’ve never heard of s scraper floor but your explanation is simple enough and it sounds like a good idea

[@awesomecronk7183]

If the charcoal output were under water it wouldn't suck air up in it. In order to get O2 down to the charcoal end of things it would need to suck water in and train the tank or push bubbles down and suck air in through the wood chips hopper, neither of which I see as being realistic unless forced.

[@ebobram]

@@awesomecronk7183 don't forget, the pressure inside the reaction chamber will be higher due to the release of water vapor and gasses as well as the heat from the furnace. I don't believe that it would suck up any water. The issue with water is that charcoal tends to float

[@calvingreene90]

I would go with a closed retort and capture the flammable gasses in a gasometer for later use.

[@Gin-toki]

Yes, the gasses could be usefull for running a gasengine for all sorts of purposes, or even be used in a furnace for heating elsewhere. Also the kresotoe/tar and other byproducts might also be an idea to collect, especially when made in larger quantities.

[@gwyneddboom2579]

You could possibly use it to run a locomotive

[@andrewreynolds4949]

Can people please stop this obsession with the locomotive!

[@calvingreene90]

@@andrewreynolds4949 No.

[@gwyneddboom2579]

@@andrewreynolds4949 no!

[@bknesheim]

Make it as Archimedes screw instead of an auger. You can then turn the pipe from the outside. With the plasma cutter it should be easy to make. Cut a pipe in half and weld the dividers in place and bolt the pipe back together again. Using a set of metal rollers there would be no bearing problems because of the heat. If you made a sheet roller like, the pipe roller, you could make a pipe in any dimension needed. 🙂 A moving part inside a very hot pipe will have a lot of problems. It will easily warp and bend if any wood get stock. I now from test that the combustible gas part have a enough heat to complete the charcoal when the process as been started. So you only need some extra fuel in the start if the gas is used efficient. You will need a fairly good seal at the intake to force the combustible gas out. This can be done with a rotating feeder so that the top is never open directly to air.

[@NickFrom1228]

Exactly. This design, along with things like a slight slope should do it. Blockages are an issue, as you mention, but a lot of that is preventable by feed speed. It also helps to be able to reverse the auger to clear blockages.

[@MotoDeSoto]

Love your basic design and thought process. One minor thought, there may be some benefits to putting the auger motor on the cooler end. You probably already thought of that. I’m enjoying watching your charcoal plant evolve.

[@chriskwakernaat2328]

or use a chain to drive the auger to keep the motor far away from the heat..

[@ProfSimonHolland]

yep.....auger jamb nightmare.... gravity feed? rotate the whole chip drum....like a cement factory? external drive away from and heat.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

Yep - good idea.

[@nacnud2323]

Isn't this similar to how they cook limestone to make cement? Might be worth looking at.

[@ericlotze7724]

Yeah “rotary kilns” are somewhat similar.

[@Chr.U.Cas1622]

Dear Mr. Tim I guess a slightly angled rolling tube oven like the ones used in cement and lime producing factories could work for charcoal too. Please kindly allow me a suggestion: Maybe you should look how charcoal is produced by big facilities at first instead of trying to reinvent the wheel again. Maybe the professional solutions can be simplified and scaled down of course. Best regards, luck, health and wisdom.

[@lumotroph]

Agreed! How do the professionals do it?

[@andrewreynolds4949]

He did show some pictures of large charcoal production kilns at the beginning

[@krille220]

Its an intresting design and would be fun to see it in action or atleast a test

[@KhaledAlSaadany]

Practically, you will need to work in patches, bigger patches maybe, but patches still.

[@Thinkle911]

I absolutely do understand your desire to have an continous process, but you found out yourself, that heat and mechanics do not always mix so well and can cause a lot of expensive issues. If we define the area between two auger blades at the bottom of a pipe as "one portion", then you have a batch process with ~25 mini reaction chambers running 25 mini batches through the process and keeping it alive. What if you step back a little bit, forget about all the moving parts and design a process with a smaller number of containers in a kiln, that can be filled throught he top and emptied through the bottom individually? Like 5 steel pipes with 250mm diameter in a setup like a revolver drum. You could always empty out one batch, while the other ones keep the process alive and conserve heat.

[@lumotroph]

I wonder if a large rotating barrel (like a big tumbler or old cement mixer) could be used and done in a similar fashion without needing the auger (as per suggestion below)

[@stevenbryant3055]

It’s a very interesting almost ingenious design but I’m curious how you plan to stop creosote from gumming up the auger since creosote is extracted from the wood in the charcoal making process and can condense inside the auger or smokestack, also you could theoretically replace the bearings in the auger with metal shielded ones and connect the augers to the line drive which would eliminate the issues with what you already have with it and potentially make it viable to continue with the old design

[@ericlotze7724]

I think sheerly via high temperature was the plan; have them stay as vapor and combust with the secondary air and/or get thermally cracked into more volatile hydrocarbons and/or syngas (which would do the same) and/or petcoke.

[@ericlotze7724]

Granted a good clean once in a while is always nice!

[@stevenbryant3055]

@@ericlotze7724 I was talking about on the screw of the auger which is theoretically the coldest part as it’s furthest away from the radiating heat and has charcoal sliding along it which would absorb heat from the screw as it passes by as well, but now that I’m actually thinking about it that is a very valid point it should easily stay in a gaseous state so long as he can keep enough heat throughout the entire system, the main times he’d have issues with creosote is upon startup and shutdown so as long as there’s enough heat still in the system he’ll never have an issue, thank you for your insight it helped clear up the one thing I apparently missed

[@09conrado]

In insulated rocket stoves, no creosote is formed, as the temperatures are so high that any side product such as soot, creosote, smoke etc gets burned in the afterburn process. My guess is that Tim's burn chamber did exactly that as well

[@bknesheim]

@@09conrado Just as important in an rocket stove is that any creosote forming oxides and converted to CO2. The main design point of a rocket stove is really to ensure that there are always enough oxygen to complete the combustion. That's why you can have a roaring fire and hardly any smoke. 🙂

[@ricksanchez3176]

Brother, believe me when I tell you I have a foil hat, slide rule, and a big imagination, so this is not from judgement or kicking you in the shin for inventing and trying to make the world a better place. This would be a tough one, variations in the wood, the volatile compounds contacting the steel under heat, with the friction constantly removing the scale that protects it from further corrosion....timing, one end of the batch may need more time than the other, so speeding up or slowing down, one part gets under or over cooked. All the bugs you mentioned can certainly be worked out, but you would need a titanium auger, I don't think coated would work as the heat cycles would cause separation. I've worked in coke plants, big money, big resources, hundreds of ovens, even with a much more consistent fuel. Neat idea, you got a whole stack of better ones, that are definitely worth sinking time and money in.

[@gs425]

Base your design on a simplified gasworks. Instead of making coke you make charcoal. Use the gas to power the stationery engine.

[@eduardodaquiljr9637]

Auger can move materials better than paddle,they make the tube inclined because material can not move effectively if tube is in level position.cheer!

[@CMZneu]

Very interesting, though i get the feeling something very similar to this should exist but i don't know very much on the subject

[@Jim_woods]

Sounds great but what about some cheep steel drums that you could have on a sort of chain drive device that they lay on in the cooker and you can roll out the burnt ones and roll in the new ones they should be sufficiently sealed and could probably be vented easy and could put agitation lumps in the barrel to make sure they all move around well. Hope fhat makes sense.

[@SquishyMit]

I like this idea, kind of a 'batch conveyor' with barrels, in a larger tube.

[@robinforrest7680]

Sounds like a good plan. How about your insulation in fact being your sand heat storage battery? You could redirect the chimney through your sand battery too to heat it up. If you do regular production burns you’ll be charging your sand heat storage battery every time you use it. In the winter you can direct your house heating circuit through the sand pit for winter heat and even have another circuit for hot water! Robin

[@thatoneyoutubeguy1994]

Lovely stuff Tim! here's hoping you get this all up and running :} It seems very promising!

[@russellsmith8609]

I think you are really close with this design. Extending the augur tube on the exit side some distance would allow it to cool. Also, drawing the intake air for the forced air down across the cooling part of the charcoal exit tube might help cool the charcoal below the spontaneous combustion temperature. I sawnutwiss's suggestion of a chain conveyor might be cheaper

[@ericlotze7724]

Yeah, counterflow air! That would be neat. Could maybe figure out a way to “entrain” the Pyrolysis gas or syngas or whatever it is called from the end of the auger into that airflow to allow it to burn more towards the entry.

[@gwyllymsuter4551]

its a good idea but you will have issues with tar build up. pyrolytic reactions like this produce a lot of byproducts, such as methane, nitrogen monoxide, carbon monoxide and dioxide etc. powering the flame from wood gas is far more sensible and this kiln will produce copious amounts of it to feed the fire. in general you'd use around 40% of your wood gas powering the reaction. a vortex separator on the outflow will sort a lot the tar and gas problems out.wood tar is a commodity to be sold or fractionally distilled. use excess wood gas to heat your house etc

[@gigaxacku]

A.) You should absolutely try and salvage what you can of the old charcoal-cooker, saves money and the suggestions people are making for protecting the bearings/motor are brilliant B.) Will you have some sort of way to access the inner working of the cooker so you don’t have to cut away a bunch of material?

[@krisraps]

I had An Aadvanced Idea For Your Idea, But Its To Complicated To Just Tell You In Comment, You Have A Great Mind Ser. :) Im Innovator Too So Jeah, Lovin It !

[@fredrikbergdahl2988]

I would skip the auger and run it as a rotating kiln instead, ie a leaning barrel/pipe rolling on bearing blocks. Fewer complex parts exposed to heat that way.

[@markwhickman351]

Came here to say that. It's what scale production uses. A slight slope and a spiral can be added too. If it is extended past the hot section, secondary air can be blown over the outside to both cool and preheat the air prior to injection. Either that or make the furnace burn lean and recapture pyrolysis gas.

[@dansw0rkshop]

This idea of "continuously" -- what exactly is the goal? Does it really mean long unattended operation? It's not hard to set up the haitian single barrel method for "continuous" production. You just need a lot of 55-gallon drums. You start one, then the next, and so on down the row for as many barrels as you have, and by that time the first one is done and ready to be emptied and restarted. This would be continuous, but not unattended.

[@cityscapeaudio]

Whatever option you go for, consider insulting the system in sand ala the Polar Night Sand Battery used to store seasonal heat energy. Could run a heat loop through it and back to some sort of heat exchange with your own homes hot water system.

[@SILVESTROThingS]

In my opinion, with such a solution, the problem is the accumulation of tar on the conveyor or the damaging effect of high temperatures on the conveyor, and the difficulty in controlling the purity of the exhaust gases from the chimney.

[@haugstule]

so it needs to be continuous, bearings away from heat, forgiving for chips clogging, safe AND cheap. what an awesome challenge. use one of the two spirals that you already have, try to find a metal tube that fits nicely, weld shafts to the auger in the straightest way possible so the bearings can be mounted away from the heat. and go with this design that you just showed us, minus the holes on the top of the pipe, the moisture and wood-gasses should have a way to exhaust next to the feed, in a form of a pipe. at the receiving end you make an airtight catch tank for the coal

[@andrewreynolds4949]

Or set up a gentle water sprayer to cool the charcoal, could be done with garden hose and a spray nozzle

[@raimogeel9497]

When the auger is longer you can create a cooling section after the burner.

[@SquishyMit]

I love your thinking Tim. I have been making bio-char in our firepit with my odd sized firewood (we heat exclusively with wood) during weekend campfire happy hour. It's amazing how inefficient a teepee lay fire is at completely combusting the wood. I douse the fire with water when the wine and cheese are gone and screen and crush the charcoal the next day.

[@Matt-wb7lm]

Excuse my ignorance, but why do you crush your charcoal. Wouldn't it be powdered at that point?. Do you then compress it into a cube, or what?.

[@SquishyMit]

@@Matt-wb7lm Crushing the charcoal helps increase surface area making it easier to innoculate with living micronutrients. After inoculation, the crushed biochar is added to the garden soil, which is a great benefit to the soil food web. Biochar also sequesters carbon for thousands of years, something we desperately need to be doing.

[@johncourtneidge]

Very good, thank-you. Cement kiln designs? Sloping downwardsto the exit?

[@bakudans4851]

In Austria some heating systems work with "Wood chips" (Hackschnitzel). The experience has shown that a square "pipe" for the auger will do wonders. I don't know if that will help you. But for your curiosity look at "Hackschnitzelheizung".

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

I will - thank you

[@timwrigley102]

They already make this exact machine. Worked in a factory with 3 of them many years ago. It's use to make liquid smoke flavoring.

[@Falney]

Well... The motor problem is easy to solve. Make it chain drive. I wouldn't even know how to deal withthe bearing issue. Even if you switched to unshielded thrust bearings, you would still cook the lubricant and make them unusable in no time.

[@docr8197]

Rather than turn an auger - turn the entire tube with angled brackets welded inside like a cement muxer only much much longer. The tube could rotate on ceramic rollers. And could be made long enough allow for material cooling as well as material seperation (trundle) This way inital materian could vary in size. This is a variation on comercial cock/ore kilns. The wood gas could be harvested and used to either heat the primary source or as secondary fuel to power drive motors. A rotory valve configuration on the feed side would reduce the introduction of oxy. to the process. And a secondary slott /sleeve- valve arrangment in the top of cylinder could be used to facilitate wood gass removal without allowing material escaping since gravity will keep it on the bottom/trailing side of the chamber. Also keep in mind you don't have to continously heat the tube /chamber it could have high heat segments followed non heated sections , there by allowing you a place for bearings (in coolant). Comercial ore kilns often use large support gears 1/2 in 1/2out of a heat sink. Nice concept 👌 food for thought

[@ryelor123]

I wish lead wasn't so toxic. Imagine how easy it would be to make charcoal by just deep frying wood in molten lead or zinc.

[@kai-uweschierz638]

A nice idea...the charcoal could drop right in a water bassin... Biggest Problem is the loss of energy...so if there would be a use, it would be much more thrilling for upscale.

[@kettch42]

About the spontaneous combustion of the charcoal at the end, instead of cooling them with water. Drop them into a airtight box. Well, airtight in terms of incoming air. Need some pressure relief. But then you can cool it by preheating the air that goes into the blower. Put fins on the box and draw the blower suction air past them. Also, tip the augers down so that gravity assists. Finally... stainless steel! Haha expensive yes

[@misterdubity3073]

Like others, I'm thinking some kind of conveyor but I can't quite picture it. Like little train coal cars; or the treads of an escalator (but instead of a tread, a box with open top). When a car exits with hot charcoal, the track aims downhill 90 degrees like a roller coaster dumping its load of charcoal into water.

[@michaelball7440]

I expect that one day we'll see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang come out of your shop. Please?

[@sofakingphat8087]

I like your idea. One way you could change it and maybe be a little more efficient without spending so much money, you could have multiple chambers with different heat levels for each one, so they go through stages. Less wear and tear on the first couple of chambers. Another way to be a little more efficient would be to make the tube around the outside out of copper, because copper conducts heat more than steel. I like your idea about the underwater thing. Honestly, back to the copper tubing you could just sheet the tube and copper. It would be a little more efficient. At first the cost would be a little higher, but I believe it will save more energy. Suppose you could find a auger that is long enough to travel throughout the whole process? Like if it took 50 foot to do the whole process? If you had the tube and auger, copper plated and heated it at the end, I believe it would be more efficient and get the results you desire. another thing to consider is having the bearings on a longer shaft at the end in a cooled environment. Much like a spit on the grill. The engine or motor could be on the outside and out of the heat environment. Perhaps a double tube system. The innertube would be plated and copper along with the auger, and the outer tube would be for collecting the gases. The outer to could be clay lined with copper on the inside. Think of a tube and auger long enough to get this accomplished? perhaps the auger itself could have clay tiles attached to it much like the space shuttle, then plated with copper to keep the heat off the auger system. perhaps a way to keep the charcoal from igniting would be to have it vacuum sealed? The way copper expands like much other metals, it could expand to seal, or even have some of the auger be a little bit larger near the end to make a seal so the last bit of the process it would enter into a vacuum, sealed compartment, where there was no chance for it to ignite. maybe the auger would have to be 100 feet or maybe even 200. if you angled the auger at a downward angle, and it was sealed enough, you could have the auger going into a pool when it was finished and then continue on to be dropped into a receptacle at the end after it’s had its bath. The auger could be shorter.

[@BuddyBellTree]

Love the design. The auger could drop it into a big pile of ash. That is how Japanese binchotan charcoal is cooled and smothered after reacting with oxygen.

[@monkeywrench677]

im no expert but augers can jam quite easily from what i think i know, perhaps having some way to sample the charcoal midway through and having a way to maintenance and clear jams would be good?

[@russellsmith8609]

Than a augur. And might move the motor and bearings away from the heat. Good luck.

[@WhiskeyGulf71]

I guess i’m not as stupid as people give me credit for ! When seeing the plan my very first thought was that the exiting charcoal would combust. I think the simple answer would be to have the exiting material furthest from the heat source. As for bearings, shielded, not sealed & they would need high melting point grease in them. If you make a short bearing tube with a bearing in each end you can then remove the shield from the inside of each bearing & push fresh grease in via a nipple between the two bearings.

[@trevorhaddox6884]

Blowing air up the chimney and having vent holes near the fire would allow air to be sucked through the tube from a single blower in the chimney, venting the tube and stoking the fire, just like a steam boiler.

[@tomwhite101]

Have a look at the german pyreg machines. They work this way. Very expensive though!

[@mikefiatx19]

Why not use a vertical system with baffles instead of an auger. Just let gravity do the work by sliding out a baffle to drop the Biochar. You could have it drop into a tank of water to compete the process and hydrate the char.

[@apgirl7454]

This kinda looks like a Cement Kiln to me. nearly the same principal there. you could prolly repurpose one for this.

[@merrick1384]

I wonder, if you used saw dust to get charcoal powders. Then you cook rice, or some potatoes in water to make a starch glue if you could pour the charcoal powder in to get larger clumps. The saw dust would work better with the auger.

[@datguymiller]

Water sprayer would probably not work as well, if should exit straight into water

[@scottsteinberger3542]

Could you use a chain conveyor or a the some like that. Basically attach a large steel circle or square on to a cable or chain and pull it through the tube or box. That way you can keep the bearings away from the heat as well as the drive motor. It won't plug either. You could use flat bar welded together to make a square tube and a paddle wheel to pull the chain. Good luck

[@stevecummins324]

Open trays or buckets pulled through heating pipe by a continious chain might be more reliable than an auger. And better able to handle large chips Hydrostatic taper bearings, might be more resistant to heating.

[@emrahyalcin]

wonderful idea. I don't know charcoal is used for, though.

[@loganaurora]

How about instead of rotating the auger how about rotating the tube itself around the auger. That way you can make the auger stationary so you can go longer distances without flexing. Just an idea cool stuff

[@applasamysubbharao2578]

SS310. Make it vertical. Let the gravity help us.

[@scottmcdivitt2187]

Perhaps the exiting charcoal exiting the first augur could go to a second one was wrapped in a water cooling jacket?

[@colinlothlorian]

Half of the auger casing heated for gasification, half in the open air for cooling before the charcoal hits the air? That would also lead to cooler running for the bearings.

[@HamidA-to8vy]

Tim might supply Europe with charcoal to compensate shortage in gas

[@douglasmaccullagh7865]

I got wondering about a longer auger and pipe. One section to cook the charcoal, and a second additional section to cool the charcoal. Of course, that extra length causes more bearing and friction complications

[@yolo_burrito]

Interesting idea. I could see an issue with the wood liquor fouling the process though.

[@koosaperloo9702]

The auger should have the motor on the cold side infront of the hoper and no bearing on the other side and the auger pipe extended well past the heat source where the outer casing can be cooled with water and having a hinged plate over the end of the auger casing . The charcoal will make a plug at the end of the pipe so no oxygen can enter to burn the the charcoal to ash . The auger should be about 100 mm shorter than the auger casing

[@athena1491]

its possible that a vibrating shallow ramp could work? might take some testing to figure out the best speed, but it would use the same parts minus the auger,

[@bartwaters1946]

Tim. Nice channel. Please be careful of and with “biochar” production. Incomplete combustion is the number one source of dioxin and furan production in nature and in industrial processes. The trace chemistry is difficult to avoid. Unless you are able to measure the bad actors, you won’t be able to assure your personal safety. Please consider.

[@spacehitchhiker4264]

If you wanted to do a continuous process, I'd use a slanted pipe with a rotary airlock on each end. I'm not sure if it would pass your wood chips though. If the output end had a water jacket, that would both solve the ignition problem and also heat the water for your house.

[@AndreasHatz]

Nice idea. Stainless steel is not really suitable for high temperatures as far as I can remember.

[@CPWorld68]

Wont work Auger will swell and get jammed, sorry .

[@firstLast-sn3me]

It's a shame you can't make the auger go backwards to make the hot charcoal heat the cold wet wood chips.

[@tiitsaul9036]

Sounds like a great idea. Curious to see what you come up with next.

[@stevefink6000]

Instead of a forced air furnace, could you build a rocket stove into it using convection as the force?

[@gerbil7771]

A chain conveyer could work well for this.

[@Pippy626]

What about the augers used to drill holes they are reasonably priced and sized for good size rocks

[@ArdieStranger]

I thought about a kon tiki like kiln with an auger on the bottom to scrape out the charcoal while it still burns on the top. The bottom needs to be under water to seal the kiln and to cool the charcoal and the auger.

[@michietn5391]

Alternative: not auger-in-tube, a look-alike water wheel but metal, turns slowly in metal container outside of which passes combustion exhaust (hot). Heating fuel is the volatiles boiling off wood chunks (chips not required, but small enough to fit in wheel chambers) which are ducted out of metal container into firebox. Forced air no, construct tall chimney which creates vacuum.

[@el_es]

out of the top of my head - put the motor at the 'cold' side of the auger not at the 'hot' one to avoid cooking it? Bearings might need rethinking tho.

[@Muffinrando]

50 gallon drums filled with charcoal and slap lid off to snuff out the oxygen. Then move the drum and repeat. The charcoal factories do this with a large dump container then close it off and let that charcoal cool. Then they just start up another one.

[@mansourawazel]

Great maybe if you go vertical bearing issue is solved

[@pootube4538]

7:00 Maybe a walking floor instead of augers?

[@adobo6905]

Controlling a tight and posetive seal at the material entring and exiting the auger is a challanging issue.

[@fredflintstone1]

I would place the auger motor at the wood chip end to save the motor heating up ??

[@KreativeKng]

don't forget to make a siding on the railway for loading the charcoal into a hopper wagon.

[@michaeldoll4185]

For cooling, you could use a second auger that is separate from the one in the flue so the heat doesn't transfer as easily. Plus you could have it rotate horizontally at the inclosed transfer point and be able to make separate piles or fill separate holding bins by moving it back and forth.

[@NavJordaan]

awesome! im curious as to how you're going to realise this!

[@cprgreaves]

Good to see the old brain churning away; your brain, too(grin!). But ... Continuous flow is all very well for seriously large-scale production 24/7 but can become a burden for small producers like me. A mechanical or motorized or semi-automated method as shown in the diagram (and I know it is not your final design) needs the hopper to be filled periodically or your system runs on empty; you need continual monitoring of log-jams, and presumably you need a means of moving charcoal away from the pyramid that will threaten to engulf your yard. I can't see you running such a kiln 24/hrs a day, so even if you hire a bright-lad-from-the-village, the thing still has to start up and wind down each day. I am not privy to your materials volume. On The Rock I am taking in grass clippings, hay, sawdust and old soil, sieving the sawdust and soil, and adding it all to 13 and counting bins made of scrap timber (another resource). I have difficulty juggling supplies of these five resources. You not so much, but while I like the idea of an auger etc it seems to me to be an awful lot of development work compared to a single-shot kiln where you could toss it fixed amounts of chips, firewood, light a match and walk away to work on other projects. You might be doing only one kiln-full per day, but you would be doing one kiln-full each day and would chew through the supply of chips. Cheers, Chris

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

I'm still trying to find a way to make a living, Chris. Selling lots of charcoal only works if you have it to sell

[@martino7263]

good idea, just a waste of wood-gas, other than that it's an interesting solution.

[@nickn.332]

This is a fantastic process, and speaking patent wise if you ever desired to patent and market these you know just how much industry loves 'scalable' and 'constant-production' in the same sentence! I will say, as you mention, augers are only really useful with consistantly-sized particles and better yet round ones; woodchips are neither. I love the chain idea, namely because I would wonder if you could attach wire cages/combs or grates at regular intervals to them that could scraaaaaaape the woodchips along like a rake on concrete; should one slip through it just gets caught by the next pass, and if one jams against the side the comb tines would pop past it and keep moving, hopefully being caught again by the next one. Heat might become an issue so they might need to be more "claws" than tines but the tolerances on this could be sloppier too and given you're using this for biochar any iron filings created by scraping the inner tube would simply become bioavalible iron; hardly ruining the product! I would worry about air being more freely able to travel into the tube without an auger but if it's packed enough and moving slowly I can hardly see that being a problem except at the end where a sprayer could be handy :) Good luck and be wary of biogas, it's sneaky and flammable, should it build up somewhere it could pass into deflagration territory

[@ericlotze7724]

Granted patents are only as strong as your legal team

[@09conrado]

Patents are a terrible waste of time and energy. Where will you find the resources to police them and have lawsuits? No one else will do that for you

[@JoshuaF.]

epic

[@qaz120120]

Make the thing vertical and you don't need a augur

[@oxenforde]

If you angle the wood tube downward at 45°, you would have much less difficulty moving the wood chips from one end to the other. You would not even need a proper auger, just some method of restricting wood and charcoal flow on the bottom end. Leave access at the top of the tube, to allow the insertion of a long skinny metal rod, to shake loose any sticking wood chips. However… I think that maintaining a constant process will involve babysitting the machine- and be extremely difficult. Batch processing (stacks, piles, cones, or retort) is much simpler, and will ultimately be less frustrating.

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

I have come round to that idea too - simple is best

[@mistypeppercorn914]

You could look into cooling the charcoal the same way I condense poitin by using icy water. I used to have a freezer full of icy water, 12v pump from a quad weed sprayer and cooper coil the pipe from the freezer around the the hot pipe cooling it instantly. Ran everything on a silent generator.

[@krowvin]

When I saw the work you were thinking about doing for this I got all excited. Then I saw you ALREADY tried something, that really got me. I know the feeling of starting something and it not working fully and having to go back to the drawing board. That really resonated with me Tim. I joined the Patreon to help fund your content. You don't push water bottles, try to get me to be a shadow legend hero. No you just want to dry some wood to heat your house, and as a bonus? You're doing it with a railway. Really hope others come around and we can turn that 200 Patreons to 2000!

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

Yes, I just saw you'd joined up - that's brilliant. Thanks, Charles!!

[@Henning_S.]

Maybe you can push the wood chips through the tube, you need just a hydraulic cylinder and a tube. The cylinder can be mounted on the backside of the woodchip-hopper and push the ram through the bottom of the hopper into the tube. If the front edge of the ram and the inlet of the tube have sharp edges it will just cut through the Chips instead of jamming up if a large chip doesn't fit the tube. You can even put a boiler into the chimney of the charcoal machine to use the wasted heat to power a small steam engine which runs the hydraulic pump, that is also self regulating, the hotter the fire, the faster the ram moves. The easiest way to prevent the charcoal from burning after it exits the tube is to collect the charcoal in an almost airtight container. You can use old 200L oil barrels with hole in the top, put the barrel on a pallet jack, roll it under the charcoal outlet and lift it up until it touches the outlet, so there is no gap and almost no oxygen can get in. When one barrel is full you just roll it away, put a metal sheet on the top to keep the oxygen out. Then you can immediately put another empty barrel under the charcoal outlet so the machine can run continuously, as long as you have enough empty barrels. You can just leave the full barrels outside for a day or two, so they can cool off.

[@rama3njoy]

i see one on chinese adv, charcoal from sawdust

[@Tater1337]

nice video, I am interested in seeing your solution

[@ciarantaylor367]

So many comments about the technicals, so few about the finances. It would be lovely and very informative, especially for me as I would like to make something similar, to see you build another prototype. Do you know roughly how much it would cost?

[@wayoutwest-workshopstuff6299]

You're right, Ciaran - costs are critical. That's why I'm abandoning this whole idea and going back to something much simpler.

[@Rollinmayhem21]

Then you got to figure out how to move your charcoal from there