A Simple Way To Make BioChar
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- Опубликовано: 20 янв 2023
- Today I’m showing how we make biochar. In order to make biochar, you need to first make charcoal. We simply use a fire pit to do this.
After we make charcoal, we may leave it in the fire pit for a few days to a few weeks until we have time to deal with it.
Next thing we do is break it up, then we store it in a metal bin until we are ready to use it.
When we make our compost layers ( browns and greens) each week, we add a scope of charcoal to the compost as we build it up.
At this point, it becomes biochar after it has inoculated in the compost like with beneficial microbes, bacteria, and nutrients!
Then the biochar compost can be used in the garden to benefit your plants and soil. 
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Thats a good way to crack your masonry firepit even if it does have a steel liner. It's called thermal shock.
You are very right about that.
Using such large logs creates too much ash and burns relatively cold which results in low quality biochar.
Feedstock should ideally be less than 2inch thick with the flame cap method, preferably even thinner.
what is the flame cap method?
oh you mean just covering up the fire to prevent air from getting at it and letting it smolder down
@@p0tmuffin69 flame cap biochar method is using a cone/box shaped kiln or hole in the ground and then preventing oxygen from reaching the embers by maintaining a flame cap on top of the embers. Without oxygen the embers can't burn down to ashes. With big logs it's impossible to maintain a proper flame cap which then results in excessive ash production.
@@CarbonConscious fascinating. if you added ashes to your soil would it be detrimental to plants?
@@p0tmuffin69 that's very dependant on your soil and what you want to grow in it, ashes are highly alkaline so if your soil is already leaning towards that side of the pH spectrum then you would want to avoid adding any.
Also any ash that you create means you've created less biochar than you could've created.
Thank you
You are welcome
wow
Thanks!
Dont you need to close it in a big container so the oxygen can't come? I am planning to make it but i am kinda confused after watching RUclips coz I don't have big container
It's better if you can but the way I am doing it by stacking fresh wood on top of the hot coal it depletes the oxygen, just not as good as a retort would do. you can make it in a hole in the ground too.
Umm charcoal isn’t biochar. A hot fire won’t make biochar. There’s a difference and it’s fundamentally important. Biochar doesn’t break down while charcoal does. Biochar is produced in the range of 400-750f in the absence of o2.
Umm Biochar is made from charcoal.
Actually it is all charcoal until it has been filled with biota. Hence the bio in charcoal.
So let me ask you this? This technique was developed in the Amazon in Terra Preta. They did it in this same manner. They didn’t have retorts. So I guess your saying there’s was not real either?
Charcoal is made in a environment that is oxygen depleted. By stacking wood on top, you smother the wood underneath which creates the Hasidic that makes charcoal. Biochar is made from charcoal.
Anyways biochar is charcoal that has been inoculated with bacteria, biology, fertilizer by way of soaking it in different solutions or in compost or manure.
Im pretty sure when you burn charcoal it turns into ashes which are good for plants
Yes ashes is good for plants but I’m making something totally different here. This is charcoal that will never break down into ashes. This is sequestered carbon and it stores nutrients in its pores and house’s microorganisms.
Thousands of years ago, these civilizations would dig large, deep earthen pits. They would then fill these pits with food scraps, agricultural waste and anything that would decompose organically. They would then set all of this waste on fire and cover it with soil. The practice created a condition allowing for extremely high heat and very low oxygen. The carbon created from burning the waste would then be retained in the soil, rather than being released into the atmosphere. This created soil that was very dark in color, very rich and very nutritious, as it was filled with charcoal, covered in microscopic pores and very dense, working to act as a sponge and hold nutrients that would enrich soil and improve fertility for thousands of years. Biochar is simply the modernization of this process.
You are exactly correct and that is the process I am trying to mimic. I take this charcoal and layer in my compost pile to sit for 6 months to a year, then I spread it on my trees, flowers, and garden. Thanks for your input!
Can you please share where you read about this method. This is exactly what I’ve been searching for in all these convoluted biochar vids. A real and practical way of house it was once done in the Amazon. Ty so much
@@thuytran-io1wfI have read many articles online about how they did it. A quick google search should return some results.
@@thuytran-io1wf you need hot coals first. Then you cover that with all your organic material. Then you burry it completely with soil to become an oven. Cut off from oxygen everything will slowly char and all the elements of the smoke are also retained. Its very simple science.
Now is that biochar only or could you use it as charcoal in your bbq
At this point it is just charcoal. It is small and would have to be dried out but yeah you could. I used a lot of random species of wood too such as pine, Brad for pear, oak, cedar. Just what I had around. The principal of making lump charcoal is the same but it’s made in machine that has no or limited oxygen. The wood gives off gas and impurities that are burned off and you are left with our carbon or charcoal. I’m mimicking that but in a rough way.
@@EarlybirdFarmSCthis is not charcoal. Charcoal is burned without oxygen. What you have is simply burned wood.
woe
Woe is right. Good stuff!
@@EarlybirdFarmSC i am riting WOW....here
@@unlimitedGK-om8bs ok, thanks.
gonna try this. have a small area to work with, so all I got is a firepit. hope this works
It works, you cant go wrong. It works great when you mix it into your compost. It sucks up nutrients from your compost, and slowly releases it over time into the soil to help feed your plants
A nice process, Ronnie
Thanks Rob. I’m still refining it but it’s coming along I think.
This isn't biochar mate. Use a beer keg, stuff it with green materials (leaves, coco husk, branches, wood, etc). Heat it to ~700-800 F with nothing but a single exhaust hole on the top.
The materials will cook in an oxygen deprived environment.
Hey buddy. I appreciate your comment and I do agree to an extent. I am making charcoal in order to make Biochar. There are several ways to make it, one as you stated but also the way I made it. This way doesn’t make as pure of a charcoal but it’s pretty close.
Think about this. Did the Brazilians who made Tera Prata have a beer keg? No! They dug a hole in the ground and kept stacking wood. The bottom layer is oxygen deprived and heats up to a very high temp. It still has that glassy sound and still fulfills the purpose. I’m not the only one on RUclips that makes it this way. Char is just the carbon left from the wood which is black and glassy sounding.
@@EarlybirdFarmSC beer keg is one of many "homemade" ways of making biochar. I'm referring specifically to biochar because that's what your video is called, and that's what you say you're making. Had you said lump charcoal I wouldn't disagree. 😉
Don't take this the wrong way, you took the time to make a video and put yourself out there, 100% props to you. I'm just a stickler for facts because nowadays, people throw around incorrect terminology and bs and it's making it hard for people to find accurate information.
Right now everyone is adding the word ai to everything, when in reality there's nothing on the market with actual ai in it (to my knowledge).
Very sophisticated programming isn't ai, it's just advanced programming.
@@mat.delpapa Sir biochar is charcoal. It’s charcoal that has been inoculated with nutrients, biota, etc. in order to make biochar, you first have to have charcoal. You take the charcoal and innoculate it in one of many ways. Bury it in compost is one way. Soaking it in fish emulsion is another.
If you go back and listen to the video, at the very beginning I say today we are going to make biochar. To make biochar, you first need charcoal. There is no doubting these facts. I don’t understand. This is a homemade way of making g charcoal as well. The way it was first made was in a dug out pit in the ground. When you pile wood on top, the stuff on the bottom becomes charcoal, the only other thing it can become is ashes. Do you see any ashes in my pile at the end? All you see is charcoal. Again, biochar is charcoal that has been inoculated. That process is not shown in this video. I explain the steps in the description if you take time to read it. Again I understand about putting myself out there as I’ve been doing it since 2016 and have three channels. I do appreciate your side of the story but I do not feel I’m wrong in what I’m saying.
@@EarlybirdFarmSC incorrect. In your last reply, you're confusing "activated biochar" with biochar and charcoal.
Charcoal is less stable than biochar, and typically contains more moisture (1 to 15%).
Biochar is produced through pyrolysis at higher temperatures (700F - 1200F), while charcoal is produced, also through pyrolysis, but at lower temperatures around ~700F.
Charcoal is less porous than biochar, thus has less surface area. Charcoal isn't as effective as biochar at holding onto water and nutrients. Using crushed up charcoal instead of biochar won't work as well for your plants.
Biochar is essentially the pure carbon leftover after all the organic matter is decomposed at extreme heat in an oxygen deprived environment.
In the old times, they managed to create the oxygen deprivation by stacking the wood very densely and burying it while it cooked.
Activated charcoal is made by heating common charcoal at high temperatures in the presence of gases like Argon, Nitrogen, or steam. (Not ideal for plant nutrients uptake because it lacks ion exchange).
Biochar activation typically includes mixing a 1:1 ratio of raw biochar and nutrient-rich organic matter like compost.
I hope this helps.