How to Make Biochar from Bamboo
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- In this video we will show you how we utilize bamboo to make biochar. Not only is bamboo renewable, but it also has some characteristics that make for some great biochar. I apologize for the poor audio on the video. The wind was playing havoc on the mic.
Looking good! We’ve made nearly 8000 gallons of biochar on our farm. A lot of it from bamboo. Our piles average 250 gallons of biochar per burn. Connect your two pits into an oblong one so you don’t have to cut the bamboo so much.
You didn`t need to use that water !The loose clay or sand , if you add that, in small proportions as you are layering the unburnt bamboo on top of the burining and nearly ashing bamboo, you will ; a) stop the ash build up, b) retain some heat which will help the upper wood to burn hotter , quicker c) stop oxygen and the burn to the lower wood. Instead of "quenching " with water you just dig up the loose charcoal and sand/clay. Do this on a day when it wont be raining. Sift the charcoal out from the clay-ash-fine charcoal mix. The fine mix will still be very useful as a soil mix if you want high Calcium or Potassium in some crops/vegetables. But the larger charcoal can be crushed to the ideal 3mm size with some smaller pure charcoal dust , which you can inoculate with whatever you like . I like to use Lactobacillus Plantaam or just Compost tea made from green weeds.
On industrial scale they could cool the biochar with water with added fertilizer and even use the steam perhaps,although I know to drive a turbine best the steam must be very hot and under high pressure.
The possibilities are really endless.
golden content!!!! thank you sir
Glad you enjoyed it!
Use a gunny sack that is wet and cover the hole, and put dirt over it will also cool it. No wasting water.
Thanks for the idea. We are always looking for ways to improve efficiency.
Loving this! What do you do to it before putting it in the ground? Cheers. Tanc
We do our best to crush the biochar and make sure that it is inoculate by integrating it into a mature compost pile for 4-6 weeks. It can also be inoculated with compost teas or any type of liquid nutrients.
Why not use the thin branches & leaves of the bamboo to drive up the heat and "finish" the pyrolysis at the end of the burn? Little or no requirement to "reburn" non pyrolyised material.
Great Idea. We will try this next time we "burn" some bamboo. We have done this using the smaller sticks from our fruit tree pruning with some success. Thanks for the input.
whats the pH of the final biochar produced from bamboo after pyrolysis???
Question for all bambooer's; Can't make it but any idea where I can buy biochar besides the super expensive stuff on Amazon? Any help in a more reasonable source would be appreciated. I just can't spend what BioChar is asking for a bag of fertilizer. I'm on a fixed income. I'm tired of being bamboozled. :/
If you would like to experiment with biochar without making a big investment, you can buy a bag of natural charcoal(not briquets) and crush it up as best as you can. It may not have all of the beneficial characteristics of a quality biochar, and it certainly won't be inoculated, but the mechanics will be the same. I can say this with some confidence because the only reason we began using biochar was that we were working in a highly degraded field only to notice that there were some perfect rectangles of good production when a majority of the field was poor. When we dug in those areas we found that they were areas where people had built kilns to produce cooking charcoal. There was a lot of left over charcoal dust which over time had accumulated nutrients and moisture. I imagine you could get similar results if you crushed up natural charcoal and inoculated it with a bit of compost and water over the span of 2-3 weeks. If you would apply the charcoal without inoculating you will likely see negative results in the short term as the charcoal will initially inoculate itself by taking nutrients and moisture from the soil around it. By inoculating it before application you should see benefits that can last for years.
Good question. It seems the market availability is not as robust as the hype, regulations and "gate keeper formations" on this ancient gem.
Seems like your wasting some water, I like to fill a 5 gallon bucket up and flood it all into the pit at once. Then I just walk away and let it steam off over night and the next day I harvest my bio char and layer it into my compost pile.
Thanks for the input, we will have to give that a try.