Hugh McLaughlin, PhD, PE, Alterna Biocarbon Inc.

As the world of biochar expands, the need for definitive research to answer core questions grows. One such question is “What is the role of adsorption and when does it make a pivotal difference in growing situations?” Answering those questions has been hampered by the historical absence of adsorption as a monitored property in soils and soil components (as compared to CEC) and the lack of a reliable method to create low and high adsorption biochars. While there is little that can be done about the former situation, the later may have a fairly facile solution, which will be presented here.

During studies of various TLUD stoves and investigating the pros and cons of Natural Draft (ND) versus Fan Assisted/Forced Air (FA), it was noticed that certain FA operating conditions yielded biochars with significantly higher adsorption capacity. Studies are continuing to pin down this phenomenon, but an early conclusion is that a simple modification of the existing 1G Toucan ( http://bioenergylists.org/en/mclauglintoucan ) will allow high adsorption biochars to be generated in half-gallon quantities. Since the traditional natural draft 1G Toucan, as originally detailed on the bioenergylists website in January 2010, generates biochars with low but significant adsorption capacity, a similar biochar with high adsorption appears to be easily achieved.

The key modification for high adsorption biochar is the addition of a fan assisted “Air Base”. The construction of the Air Base is detailed here. The starting point is the recycling center for some discarded tin cans – and one computer power supply fan, as shown in Figure 1.

Download the rest of the instructions in the attached PDF.

(Figure 1)

Caution! In Natural Draft Mode, the 1G Toucan typically has a flame that is up to one foot tall. In Forced Air mode, the flame is more like four feet tall.

We recommend that you make biochar outside, or in an open area with flame-retardant surfaces and a fire extinguisher or method of quenching the flame close to hand.

Joshua Bogart wrote:
> There is a local market for this firewood and at least in the smaller
> tracts we would be able to sell as dry firewood, but I am looking into
> the possibility of converting to charcoal which would increase the
> value and lower the costs of transportation, if it would be possible
> to produce energy for local use all the better. How difficult would it
> be to design a system that would 1) work on this type of material, 2)
> provide an efficient charcoal production, 3) provide some energy for
> local use?

Dear Joshua,

The below documents might be of some help:

COMPARING SIMPLE CHARCOAL PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE CARIBBEAN http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/vita/charcprd/en/charcprd.htm

Simple technologies for charcoal making
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5328e/x5328e00.htm

Industrial charcoal making
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5555e/x5555e00.htm#Contents

Jeff Davis

Jock Gill, Summer 2010!!

See the attached pdf file for printable Char-B-Que Instructions in Gorgeous Full Color Detail!

Basic Elements -- these are the elements required to convert a Weber unit to a carbon
negative Char-B-Que.
The B stands for Biochar. Total cost: $0.00
two cans -- these will be turned into iCan TLUD stove units
For more pictures of other experiments: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jockgill/

Hint: Measure the circumference of the can. Divide that by the number of holes you
want to have in your design. Use that result as the distance between hole centers.
Mark the hole centers as per the above and then make your holes.

Hint: Always make small pilot hole first and then work your way up to bigger and bigger
holes made with larger and larger tools. A set of graduated nails and spikes works
great. When in doubt, start with fewer and smaller holes. In general, primary air holes
will be smaller and secondary air holes will be much larger. The number of holes you
use and their sizes, and locations, has to seo be tuned for draft conditions, fuel type, fuel
form factor, and fuel size.

Perfect Char-B-Que Chicken. Juicy. Tender. No smokey taste. And no burned bits at all.Skin was also very crispy.
Cooking time: about 45 minutes. The right iCan had more primary air holes, 21, and burned out at 40 minutes.
The left iCan was complete at 48 minutes. It had only 15 holes for primary air. Tuning is important.

Biochar from the wood pellets in the iCan TLUDs at the end of the Char-B-Que. The biochar, which will be mixed with compost and then added to gardens as a soil amendment is how carbon that was in the wood pellets is sequestered. The long term sequestering of the carbon from the biomass is what makes the Char-B-Que "Carbon Negative".

Rob Lerner, May, 2010

From Rob's Biochar Blog: http://biocharlog.blogspot.com/
Also take a look at his Captioned Slideshow: http://picasaweb.google.com/bajarob/RockinRocketRetort#.