Lots of work but interesting work, 55/30 with an Afterburner.

Steam activation increases surface area while you douse.

That’s going to be more of a “brown carbon” that will just break down over time. The biochar is going to stay put much longer. The brown carbon would still be better than nothing though although it is temporary

From a pure efficiency perspective skillcult channel did like a six foot trench by four feet wide. Ya add a layer of logs and burn and when its coals ya add another layer of logs until the trench is filled to the top. Then dowse it with water or cover with metal and dirt to put out the oxygen. I’ve done the trench method and burned a large load of wood on a 20 foot trailer. I loaded the trailer up maybe four feet with logs, branches etc and burned in a trench for six hours maybe haha maybe eight. Then I soaked all the charcoal in a large like ten foot round horse water trough. That’s been the most effective method I’ve seen that’s cheap. You could make a large metal tank 30 foot long and then burn natural gas or something and do bulk production. If ya got the money you could just make activated carbon while you’re at it.

You are core t about the crucible method. That is how I make lump coal for my smoker. The theory behind Biochar production in this manner is that waste wood allow to decay in the forest releases 95% of its carbon. Pyrolysis converts some of the wood into active carbon that takes much longer to break down. Biochar suspends carbon release. The wood waste needs to be under 25% moisture content so methane is not released during the burn.

My thoughts exactly. Chip it and mix with compost and spread it all the carbon is in the soil.

The key here is that the carbon itself is captured and used as a matrix directly in the soil. Composting eventually releases all of the carbon as CO2. (I'm not a greenhouse gas weirdo, and I know climate scientists are lying through their teeth, but chemistry is chemistry, whether you believe the "other" lies or not). When carbon is captured as C2, it stays that way a very long time (hundreds of years), unless you reheat it to many hundreds of degrees to force it to convert to CO2 and CO. That never happens in your garden. In the meantime, pure carbon acts like a perfectly Ph-neutral sponge/matrix that allows all the other great stuff to have a massive microscopic platform to grow on - even water loves to fill in all the many gaps in the carbon and just stay there, slowly releasing as the garden dries out during drought. Much of the carbon retains the original mechanical matrix of the original wood - all the micro-tubules that are in a tree trunk or limb (or even leaf) - you can imagine the water-holding capacity of that structure. And the carbon is so chemically neutral and passive at normal temperatures that it basically has no other effect on your garden chemistry - it doesn't react with and suck out all your existing NPK and other minerals. Well, it does absorb some of them until it reaches it's own saturation level and then stops absorbing, but it doesn't act like a catalyst, continually eating away at the good stuff in your soil. It's some beautiful stuff, and this is coming from a climate-denier, so consider that, too. It's not a scam by the nature freaks, or else I would be railing against it as garbage science. This is the real deal. The South American Indians/Aztecs/Amazons called it Terra Preta (Pretty Earth?).

There are times and place for the pefectly pyrolised burn but there trully is so much wood trimming out there that it's not possible logistically to get it to a retort and it ends up fire hazard and/or rotting waste. A properly made fire is still pretty air tight with practice and knowledge... When possible a proper retort allows energy utilization and a more directed burn quality but you will find many different settings where this type fire initiates earthlings into making their own char very similar to the great South American communities! Combining char with a community's humanure was probably the catalyst for terre pretta... MHO

When you burn wood about 40 to 50% is turned into biochar. It releases 50 to 60% carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When biochar is mixed with compost and it matures. It starts collecting carbon and oxygen and other gases from the atmosphere. It slows down the complete decomposition of organic matter to at least a decade or more. So the tendency is that it keeps on collecting carbon mass and builds up soil with a lot of carbon. Every year it traps more than 50 to above 100% in carbon. In a decade it can exceed more than a 1000% of carbon sequestration. That is nigh permanent carbon sequestration.

It is a broad and exciting science once the potential is properly assessed.

thats snake oil

@@sunnys3727 take it up with the empirical research, I’m not the scientist.

Crucible method is one way of producing Biochar. That is the process I use to make lump coal for the smoker

Link is in the video description. It is the National Resources Conservation Service. Ya'll up near Motown?

yes

Yes, the charcoal is the beginning of it. It is Biochar once you put it with nutrients (manure, compost, etc). Ideally, you want all charcoal and not some charcoal on the end of a piece of wood. That is why a complete burn is needed but not taken to ash

For some reason my wood stove does not burn all wood to ashes and I get about 1/6 char and 5/6 ashes, now I can not sift and through

Nothing really. If you have a good burn on wood that is turned to charcoal, it is the same thing. Campfires tend to burn to ash or burn one end to charcoal and the other is still wood, but you can find good charcoal from a fire that has burned out or was quenched.

@@RedToolHouse That's good to know. I am going to start adding the char left from our outdoor fires up at the lake into my raised garden beds there. Yay!

Yes, but it’s potentially toxic depending on how it’s treated, or not. There’s a 2 letter code stamped on them; “HT” is Heat Treated” which is fine. Canada doesn’t allow any chemical treatment of pallets.

but it locks carbon in the ground you can also produce syngas very climate friendly , i was always taught you garden matter should increase year on year instead of decrease like it does using mineral fertilizers

Last time a checked a cubic yard of Biochar was $125

And we know how their accounting system is

and if that someone tried to blame a single youtube video they watched for teaching them wrong i would laugh very loudly at them

Yes. Which we talk about that in the video

Can you explain your point of view? Who is scamming and who is the victim? I am just learning about this and want to know your thoughts too.

The opinion of carbon credits vary dramatically. Looking at the option pragmatically, however, if a company wants to pay me to process waste material for the betterment of my soil, then I will take full advantage of that.

​@Steve Cobb it's the same with "carbon offset" neither has shown any real affect on emissions. But you know what would? Holding the countries that polluted the most like China accountable. But no one wants to actually do that because they love Chinese money...

​@@RedToolHouse exactly how I feel.

So, we live on Earth. Where does the carbon go when you put it in the ground? Where does the carbon go when you put it in the air? On the same note, what is the water cycle on Earth? If Earth is nothing but closed systems then how do these things increase or decrease ever? Very interestingly, the carbon produced by the world of the dinosaurs is the same carbon governments imagine they can somehow reduce now. Yes, it's a scam. Is there carbon floating in space, polluting, say, the moon? No The carbon they want to reduce are humans, carbon based life forms in general. But it will never be reduced, whether ash or decomposing bodies, the Earth will absorb all that carbon again again.

Worms are the way to go with the char. It has to be charged in my opinion or it just takes for the first year.

I use the crucible method for making lump coal for my smoker

don't burn wet wood is quite different to don't wet burnt wood don't you think haha

my suggestion if someone is teaching it for free you wont be out of pocket if you try it and i think while you may find some people claiming its nothing to right home about you will struggle to find anyone suggesting it is harmful, the few studies that have been done are very inconclusive but the research is still very much in early days ,this practice has been done for centuries in australia and africa and probably most everywhere else for a long time

It is biochar once it has been mingled with nitrogen sources like manure. This adds value and makes it more than charcoal

And? Soooo you care some? ;). This is totally interesting and helpful to improve gardening/farming. Less amendments to spend money and time on! I care about THAT! Thanks for your info, Troy! Appreciate it.

@@peggypastime1278 Love saving money. Don't buy the carbon lie. Life is carbon based. The agenda is anti-life.

Climate change isnt a conspiracy theory. Jfc.

I am no enviro nut but if I can get some of my tax money back by playing what ever game is popular at the time especially if it involves waste material I have copious amounts of, I will do it every time.

@@RedToolHouse I see, but how do you monetize your, say, 20 wheelbarrows of biochar that you put into your orchard? Do you have a gov official sitting there filming you doing it? Or do they believe you just because you said that you added biochar?

That is the "Game" part of all of this. The documentation can be a video I create and submit based on specific guidelines. Moisture testing of the starting by products, weighing finished product, etc. It has all kinds of potential issues and opportunity for shenanigans (just like any other gov. program).

Don't listen to these right wing haters. You're disposing of waste, building local ecosystems, and helping the atmospheric composition. They can get all pissy about politics if they want, but it's not relevant. This is about science and survival.@@RedToolHouse

Care to elaborate?

@@RedToolHouse He was saying Best Stuff! He appreciates your info regarding saving time/money on amending gardens/farms!!