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Originally Posted by Tiabin
Hi guys!
I'm employing what, if google serves me true, seems to be a novel idea... using a fresnel lens to cook up some biochar. Has anyone done anything like this? Any tips? Thus far I'm thinking all I need is a tube of some sort, with a top, thats made of some metal that can take a tremendous amount of heat (these lenses can melt glass), pack it full of pine needles, leaves, coffee grounds, chicken bones, and the like... flip upside down, and focus the lens on it for a while. Will this work?
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You'd probably be interested in this thread
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Solar Parabolic Trough Charcoal Oven
It starts off as an experiment to perform pyrolysis with a parabolic trough reflector. About half way through the thread, I and others have attempted to create char using fresnel lenses. So far we haven't come up with an optimal design, so any input is most welcome!
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Oh and another question... I plan on charging the charcoal with my urine. I'm going to be installing an organic garden on the property. It'll be my first garden, and unfortunately our soil has a significant amount of clay. Will the coal + compost be sufficient to repair the tilth of the soil, as well as provide the essential nutrients? From what I'm reading it seems like the charcoal readily replaces fertilizer nearly entirely -- let alone the biochar PLUS compost.
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The char doesn't replace fertilizers. Actually, it's porosity allows fertilizers to infiltrate the char. Some sources say that because of this you must "charge" the char and/or make sure you add enough fertilizer. Supposedly this is only a problem when the char is first introduced. A way around this seems to be composting. Throw the char in with your compost. You can toss your urine in there as well (don't overdo it).
I also have very clay soils (Georgia). The char helps a little with texture, but I'd recommend adding some sand and crushed granite.
