Biochar is starting to be used for stricly pyrolosis derived char but not everyone is using it this way
IMHO it is pyrolosis Char is best as it reduces smoke emission (by 90%+?) and uses the energy to keep the char burning and sell off the energy as bio-oil or as electricity from a generator
The closesest thing around to a perpetaul motion machine?
In the meantime this is an interesting article. A good introduction you can give someone on the whole deal
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 To make biochar, pile up woody debris in a shallow pit in a garden bed. Burn the brush until the smoke tins and then damp-down the fire by covering it with about an inch of soil. Let it smoulder until the brush is charred, then put the fire out.
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The white smoke, produced early on, is mostly water vapor. As the smoke turns yellow, resins and sugars in the material are being burned. When the smoke thins and turns grayish blue, dampen down the fire by covering it with about an inch of soil to reduce the air supply, and leave it to smolder. Then, after the organic matter has smoldered into charcoal chunks, use water to put out the fire. Another option would be to make charcoal from wood scraps in metal barrels. (For details, go to Twin Oaks Forge.)
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I’m part of the Smokey-the-Bear generation, raised on phrases like “learn not to burn,” so it took me a while to warm up to the idea of using semi-open burning as a soil-building technique
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But there’s more. What if you generate energy by burning a renewable biomass crop (like wood, corn, peanut hulls, bamboo, willow or whatever), while also producing biochar that is then stashed away by using it as a soil amendment? (For an example, see the Archive article, Mother’s Woodburning Truck, about wood-gas generators.) The carbon recovery numbers in such a system make it the only biomass model found thus far that can produce energy without a net release of carbon.
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As gardeners, it is up to us to find ways to adapt this new knowledge to the needs of our land. To make the most of my bonfire of weeds, I staged the burn in a trench dug in my garden, and then used the excavated soil to smother the fire.
A layer of biochar now rests buried in the soil. Hundreds of years from now, it will still be holding carbon while energizing the soil food web. This simple melding of soil and fire, first discovered by ancient people in the Amazon, may be a “new” key to feeding ourselves while restoring the health of our planet.
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Make Biochar ? this Ancient Technique Will Improve Your Soil
MOther' s Woodburning Truck
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The method I use requires 55 gallon barrels. Once you get the idea I am sure you can modify this method to suite your needs.
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Making Charcoal
