Thank you for the input. Great ideas!

Watch KZfaq "Building a rocket stove biochar/charcoal kiln". It's the principal fire chamber. In my construction the square heavy gauge steel tube is lying on the flat side, raised a bit to align with the edge of the rolled rim of the lower barrel part, where the cut was made to make place for the fire chamber, by three small iron U-bars welded on underneath. A major difference with my device is, that the rocket stove tube is only welded on the very top of the watertank, and not welded on to the fire chamber. Instead a steel plate is welded on to the bottom of the watertank. A hole was cut for the rocket stove tube, but no welding here; in case of overpressure. It's just protruding some 4 mm into the bottom steel plate, flush with the underside. On the rear side of the rocket stove tube a Ø10mm cylindrical stud is welded on underneath the steel plate, 5cm behind the rocket stove tube (seen from the front), fitting into a drilled hole on top of the fire chamber, in order to align the whole upper part of the unit with the exhaust hole in the fire chamber. Contrary to the above mentioned video, my gas escape system is placed inside the reaction chamber, quite similar to what James Hookway is using in his retort system, by drilling two Ø 15mm holes, 10cm apart and 10cm in front of the rocket stove tube itself and pushing steel tubes with Ø12mm hole 4/5th of the length into the water tank. These two tubes protrudes 2 to 3cm into the fire chamber through drilled holes, thereby leading produced woodgas directly into the fire underneath, assisting in keeping the temperature up, and very important, creating the heat underneath the watertank and in the very beginning of the rocket tube, thus creating the fire where it's needed, instead of blowing the flames out the top of the chimney, making the burning self sustainable up to two thirds of the time. It also gives you the advantage of actually being able to see when the charring process is completed; when no more gas flames is visible at the opening of the two tubes, the process has fully reacted and there is nothing but pure carbon left inside the water tank. At the beginning of each burn lots of steam is created because of the inevitable water content in the wood. It will be trapped in the top of the water tank, together with the air present between the material in the reaction chamber as all of it start raising upwards with the increasing temperature. Remember the rocket tube has a natural vacuum, so the location of the openings of the two tubes near the top of the water tank enables this mixture to escape by being pressed, or rather sucked, into the tubes and down into the fire chamber, thus eliminating anything dripping out elsewhere. The water evaporates in the flames and the tar residue is burned, i.e. no smoke! The charging hole is placed near the bottom of the water tank, constructed of a steel plate sliding in and out on two steel U-bars in a tight fit. A few steel plates had to be welded on to convert the odd round shape of the water tank to a narrow funnel in which the sliding steel plate lid is placed. It's mounted in a app. 60 degree angle facing downwards on the rear side of the water tank, seen from the front. When operating the unit, the water tank with the rocket stove tube inside is turned upside down, material is charged through the square opening, and the steel plate acting as a tight fitting lid can be slided in place by pushing it upwards. The unit is now closed and can be turned upright again. Care is observed when placing it onto the fire chamber; all three protruding studs must align. When the burn is completed the steel plate lid is simply pulled upwards and the charcoal/biochar almost falls out by itself into a bucket placed on the ground. Nice and easy. Further improvements to this construction has been made. The large oil drum to be used as outer cover, was cut in two parts, right around the lower reinforcement rim. The lower 1/3 part of the drum, housing the fire chamber, is filled with insulation material, and the upper 2/3 is lined with insulation material inside. This increases the internal temperature significantly. A bonus is that the shorter than normal barrel is way easier to lift up and slide over the water tank, despite the extra weight of the insulation lining inside. It also has a separate insulated lid, which is put on afterwards. Finally, a word of caution! I've had a single gas explosion, almost blowing the steel plate lid off the charging hole, and buckling the plate in the bottom of the reaction chamber, due to a burn with only a half full reaction chamber; too much empty space inside the water tank contained enough oxygen that when mixed with the wood gasses it ignited as the temperature increased to a critical point. Always fill the reaction chamber fully up and pack the material as tightly as possible, to avoid an excessive amount of air inside. The system is based on the principle of an anaerobic (oxygen free) environment.

That's right. Usually I make 3-4 batches and that's enough charcoal to keep my grill going through the summer.

។តររេហយហហងនว

John Ratko

+Norman Kellison It's made from an old 60 L (16 gal) electric storage water heater tank in 400 mm (16 inch) diameter. I just removed the insulation from the storage tank.

+youel adamas I know. I made a lawnmower run on charcoal at some point. There is also a video series of that on my channel.

es problema es porque la entrada de aire no es de igual tamaño que la salida. fijate que el hueco de abajo es igual que el de arriba, pero el de abajo esta bloqueado por la leña. al menos que tenga otra entrada de aire por otro lado.. ese hueco tiene que agrandarse

Yes. Exactly. Gas enters the burn chamber and burns with the rest. Fuels the fire and burns cleaner.

hrz4x4 Brilliant! I am busy building my first,a small one just straight burner with secondary air.Want to later build a bigger one with water heat exchanger for rads in my house,or just hot iar piped through which would be easier. Nice work! And you need to catch the residue that drops out the bottm.In Sweden they bake the roots and the residue is a fantastic natural wood preservative.Just an idea.

I have also collected the tar and painted some wooden parts with it to protect the wood. Have a nice build!

hrz4x4 Thanks,you have a nice day

Unfortunately I do not have a build video. You should be able to see from the 2 videos how it's made.

Enrique Casiano its a rocket stove

+juvylen galendez mostly water and some tar.

+coolo I need it for insulation. Otherwise the reactor will not get hot enough.

just the barrel itself? I didn't see any insulation added

+coolo air is the insulation. like on a double glass window.

cool. it definitely works.

coolo🇻🇦

Fuel/air mixture is very important. I guess I have to play with the tube dimensions in the future. I have tried to blow in some extra air but not very successfully.

8

I ques youre Estonian

Yes. I guess you are Suomalainen :)

+hrz4x4 Yes im finnish and u are from the country that has tnt energy drink😉

I really don't know anything about energy drinks. I drink beer for energy ;)

+hrz4x4 yeah. ones my frend said like "if youd get some mid beer you probaply would drive my tractor hundred fivehundred

Do you have any blithering in-laws? Think about that for a while.

Andrew- breathing heavy though. Maybe making phone calls......

Andrew 一 ^

Andrew if they talk they get criticised...if they are silent they get criticised...who knew!?

Andrew I think its better this way

Enrique Casiano yes they do haha there are lots of videos on youtube 🙄