FW: [biochar-production] EZ Biochar - The Japanese Cone Kiln
John Miedema
(From Tom Miles)
The largest unit made by Moki in Japan is 60 inches in diameter (150 cm) by 17” (43 cm) tall and has a volume of about 18 ft3 (534 L), or about ½ CY. I think that I estimated that you could load about 100 lb of wood and make about 25 lb of char in a charge.
http://moki-ss.co.jp/public/_upload/type017_5_1/file/file_13578839570.pdf
Tom
From:
biochar-p...@yahoogroups.com [mailto:biochar-p...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Kelpie
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013
11:57 AM
To:
biochar-p...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [biochar-production] EZ
Biochar - The Japanese Cone Kiln
I love my Japanese Cone Kiln. I had a welder make it
for me 2 years ago, but I did not understand how to use it. I finally figured
it out about a month ago and it is so easy! It is basically just a cone-shaped
fire ring - a truncated cone. All you do is start a small fire in the bottom,
and once that is all burned to glowing coals, you add small stick wood or
branches on in layers. Each time the wood gets black and starts to ash, you add
another layer. The layers underneath continue to cook out tar and gas, but they
don't burn because air is excluded. When the cone is full you quench it with
water. If you like, you can throw a grill on it and cook your dinner before you
put it out.
It takes about 2 hours of very easy work. You can do other chores (like
splitting wood) while you watch the fire. And the yield is very impressive. I
start with two 6 cu ft wheelbarrows full of 2" kindling wood. I end up
with about 5 cu ft of nice, crumbly biochar (water quenching really helps make
your biochar hydrophilic).
Compare this with my JRO (Jolly Roger Oven) TLUD and my retort kiln, both using
55 gallon drums:
My JRO TLUD takes about 45 minutes when loaded with big wood chips. The yield
is about 2 cu ft. Finding, screening and drying wood chips is a pain. And the
tall stack of afterburner and chimney is hard to handle for me (at 5' 2" I
need a step ladder).
My retort kiln takes about 2 hours to complete. The yield is about 1.5 cu ft
and I usually use about one full wheelbarrow load of wood to fire it, sometimes
more. The feedstock prep is similar to the cone kiln, although I can use any
size wood to fire it.
Here are some specs: It was made from a 4x8 sheet of 14 gauge steel with
3/8" rod welded around top and bottom rims for stability. Top diameter is
43". Bottom diameter is 16" and height is 16". That's it. My
welder had a heck of a time bending the steel to make the seam weld. Needs a
couple of strong guys or preferentially a differential slip roller to roll the
form into shape. You could also make it from lighter weight steel.
I have pictures and some video up at www.greenyourhead.com
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