Science Forums 2

[davidgmills]

Taildragerdriver: 5-10 tons per acre. Wow. More power to you. I have been thinking if we could get every human to have a goal to put one ton of charcoal back into the earth before they die that would be a laudable goal. Six billion tons of charcoal in the ground would do wonders for the planet.

At this rate you could single handedly save the planet for us all.

150 feet in diameter. That is a big fire ring. I really cannot imagine what his thing looks like, but you will put us all to shame.

As far as the 55 gallon drum method, there is a blacksmith that has a good website that shows how he makes charcoal for his forge. Very interesting method in that he builds a fire under the drums and then seals the drums and reroutes the gases from the heated drums back into the fire. After a while the gases are the fuel that keeps the process going. The only problem with it seemed to me that his method, even with using the gases, still used more wood for fuel than charcoal. If you use half the wood for fuel and half for charcoal that seemed very wasteful. My process probably did not involve using 1/10 of the wood as starter fuel.

In order to get urban areas to make charcoal, I have thought about making a pit that barbecues with it. (Memphis is considered the barbecue capital of the nation,it has a few rivals but we really don't pay them much attention). So if you could make a pit that made barbecue you would not incur the wrath of the neighbors. Most people do not complain about the smell of barbecue. They don't have the same sentiments about smoke.

And making charcoal is smoky.

One other thing to keep in mind as far as tonnage. The wood shrinks in size when you charcoal it down to about 1/4 to 1/3 the size, but the shrinkage in weight is much greater than that. After all the water and gases are burned off, charcoal may only weigh an 1/8 (just guessing here) or so of its original weight. It is every light.

Erich: I had read your posts elsewhere that Missouri is the capital of charcoal making in America. Unfortunately, on an suburban plot (about 1/3 acre), I can not feasibly even use a ton much less 125 tons.

But I am also trying to find ways small plot owners can take their annual dead wood and clippings and charcoal them rather than send them off to the local landfill. That means coming up with a way to do it on a small scale and a way to do it so that neighbors don't complain. That is why I like the barbecue pit idea. I am thinking about taking a garbage can and making charcoal in it and putting a grill at the very top of the heap. Barbecue is not supposed to be cooked directly under a flame anyway. It is supposed to be cooked by indirect heat. I could do that and make charcoal at the same time.

As far as buying it though, at least for now, for us urbanites and suburbanites, I am afraid we are doomed to buy BBQ charcoal for now. Heck, I could not even find a place that had lump charcoal. I had to buy briquettes. Walmart sells lump. But they were out. And I am sure it will be considerably more expensive. But I want to try lump if I can find it.