Dig a long trench with the excavator, get a fire going (make sure you dig slanted air channels at each end), add fuel to the trench until your coal bed has the desired thickness, then cover the hole lot with dirt and let it cool off. This way you skip the need for kilns entirely, and can basically burn a tremendous amount of wastewood into charcoal at a time.
I was just thinking the same thing or possibly just a big round hole with a Chunk of steel pipe for and air intake that you can pull out once the fire is rolling 👌and it would help to set all the big stuff next to the fire to preheat before adding in 👌
I think that Jason from Mount Baker Forest Products needs to contact Jason at S&J Mining and Metals and see about having a hammer mill made that will bust some of those large pieces into uniform sized pieces and perhaps some of the smaller pieces as well broken down to be easy to scoop and shovel.....I was surprised with the intensity of that fire that you had so much left that was char and was not ashes I think you did extremely well......if those larger pieces were busted down to 4" X 4" or 3" X 3" I think you would have had a very consistent product
Late to the party on this one but Cool! Could you use the metal and rock shredding equipment from MBMMLLC to increase the surface area of the bigger pieces? Might make a fun cross-over video
good job, thanks for taking the time to make this video. good comments and ideas too. With your excavator I would dig a trench and a tapered hole like others suggested. I have a skid steer and do a tapered hole, then finish by putting some pieces of roof tin over it and then dirt on top. Make sure the pile is full and can help hold up the tin so it doesn't dip and crease. Drill a half inch hole in the panels and use that to hook them and drag them off in a couple of days. That way you get char with not too much dirt. Then I run it through an old chipper (wet it first then so you don't breath the "coal dust"). You'll figure it out I'm sure.
Came from the gold channel and I have to tell you man I’ll be watching here to. You are just a very interesting person and I’ve learned a lot from you. With that being said I live outside of Nashville and don’t have a way to put the stuff to use…….. but one day hopefully.
Blancolirio channel has a more expensive solution to this problem. Just an FYI. Good video.....maybe scale it up a bit....I don't know. Merry Christmas!!
On a large scale you can fill a Conex container and close the doors to control air supply to the burn. They usually cut a hole in the sidewall and use a shutter valve to close off air supply when you want to stop the burn. There are several companies that make chunk charcoal using the Conex process.
Could you explain the wood lot you have. I know you’ve logged and milled lumber. Are you replanting the trees that have been harvested or is that even part of your future plan for this property. Great content Jason. Thank you for sharing.
For the big logs you might check out using a chipper to reduce it's size. Also think about a metal lid to cut off air flow after you fill the bin so you can let it burn in a low oxygen environment for longer
I find it best to use feedstock 3-4" and smaller, the larger the chunk the longer it takes to char or you will end up with pulpy bits that are uncarred. This is a great use for splash that's too small for firewood
@@SJForestProducts I'm a fan of small wood. Burns quick and clean in the stove and heats mass stone and or water drums that radiate heat over hours and days
Looking at other charcoal producing sites, I see then stacking the wood closely and tightly. The light the center fire and once it start burning the pile is covered with dirt and left to burn for days. It’s then uncovered and charcoal is gathered.
I have made a lot of char from slash piles, burning them out in the open. A lot of times the char starts to build up around unburned pieces. That char as it accumulates, insulates those pieces from the heat. Since the heat is only being generated on top, where there is oxygen, the pieces buried in char get shielded from getting enough heat for pyrolysis. In the open I can move things around and move the unburned pieces to the top. I’m not sure how you would do that in your kiln.
Guessing weather's a big factor along with have a good area to put your fire pile! Jason this guy has awesome content & footage on his channel, hopefully you have already watched it, if not it's a must 👍👌👌🧡
Thanks for the tips! I'm thinking I might try just burning the piles in the open as you suggest. The kiln is a good idea, but slow and maybe only a little more efficient(?) Burning the pile all at once and converting to 30% char or 50% char would be worth it bc it would only take a day and be much faster. Thanks again!
Thanks for putting this together Jason! I enjoy your videos where you talk about what you're doing and show some of the stuff you are experimenting with (Although just watching a sawmill run is strangely satisfying). It was good to see this first attempt! I'm still curious to see the success or failure of where you wrapped peat moss and growth hormone around tree bows in an effort to use them as future seedlings, I thought that was pretty cool! As per this setup, I like what some of the other comments have suggested about sealing off the air while the batch is still hot to let the latent heat further process the larger pieces. Not sure where you are planning on finding some 8 foot containers to work with, but I wonder if you could experiment with the 6 foot container inside an 8 foot ring. Maybe set the 6' container on the ground like you have it, then set the 8' ring elevated about 6" off the ground on some blocks or just with little air hole trenches dug out, that way you have an super hot oxygen rich fire ring surounding the central burn. once the central ring is fully filled, cover it somehow (dirt or steel?) and let the heat from the outside fire ring keep it cooking over night. Obviously you can't get too complex, but I found your experiment interesting and so I shared my thoughts. It would be sort of like a larger version of the 55 gallon drums inside a dumpster that lumber capital log yard showed as mentioned in someone else's comment.
Thanks for watching! The peatmoss didn't do very well. I think only one branch survived and the rest died in our dry summer drought. Not sure that is a good way to go. I also like the metal lid idea. I think it would be easy to improve the system I have without too much work
Hey Jason Would you make a video on how to buck logs for selling to the sawmill like I've been selling logs to the sawmill but they've not been bringing crap I think I've been not cutting the logs correctly to get the most money per log , like I've heard of sweep and stuff but do not know what that is
Will do! Selling to the mill is a little of a puzzle. Its hard to maximize your cash. Have you checked out my other video on valuing my logs? That might have some good info for you.
What is value of firewood in your area? Would you not make more money selling the bigger wood even if you sit it? We get 125 a cord me, or 200 a cord my bosses price
From my own experience making biochar using 55 gallon drums. Once you had your container filled and packed down with burning coals ,instead of putting water on top to douse the fire you should have put a few inches of dirt on the top to seal it up. All that stored Heat would have baked the wood that had not been completely pyrolized yet and the lack of oxygen would have prevented the charcoal from actually burning. It would probably take a day or two for the heat to dissipate enough where you could open it up to salvage the biochar.
It will time sealing your char burner takes 12 hrs or more if your using4 to 6 inch logscontrol of your air is crucial to much its ash to little fire dies takes awhile to master for production but there is a market.
Greetings from Brazil! Great Video! I make some biochar charcoal in my backyard. I can't always carbonize all the thicker pieces of wood, but it's not a problem. I noticed that this partially carbonized wood ends up having its constituent elements more decomposed (accelerating decomposition) generating a microenvironment very conducive to the growth of microorganisms, fungi, and worms. So I leave these pieces in strategic corners (moist and shaded) that end up being ways to help the soil microbiology. The mixture of a layer of charcoal with a core of cooked organic matter is a perfect incubator for this, perhaps imitating what happens in natural forest fires. Once again, congratulations on the video.
With a second smaller container placed inside you could reasonbly easily build a TLUD retort. this would allow you to carbonize huge logs it cooks it at a higher temp making the char more complete. Good boichar will have a clinking sound similar to breaking glass when it drops on itself. it will leave a light dusty film that can rinse from your hands with only water. it would take most ot the day to build and load the fire but once iit is lit, it requires almost no attention, the gasses from the wood in the inner container will sustain the burn and will extinguish once the carbonization is complete.
wood pellets are a big deal here in Europe, used for both manual and automated wood heating stoves (not sure how it is called in english). You could produce your own machines for pellets (brickets) production. Pellets are easy to store, easy to transport. You can make money on both pellets and machines.
@@SJForestProducts TBH, I think pellets making machines could give you more money. You have all the technology and know-how to make some turn-key pellet system. Crash wood enough, compress by some spiral press... Make few videos...
You definitely want to stay away from wet stuff, too much time to dry out. bigger rounds whole are too much time as well to burn, split them to about 3x3 and when the flames die down they will be chard all the way through.
If you load up the metal bin completely with wood and cap it off (like pile dirt on top, just to restrict the airflow, then feed a fire under the whole thing on the outside, you'll pyrolyze everything. You can also capture the wood alcohol vapor coming out of the wood to fuel the fire heating it.
I make biochar on a small scale using metal gallon paint cans with holes in the lid. I fill it with my host wood, place the whole can in a larger fire and when the smoke stops coming from the can it's done.
I think Cody's Lab did this and the conclusion wad to just light the pile and just put it out before it all turned to ash. That was agonizing to watch knowing that all you would need is a water truck and a couple charged lines just to burn the whole pile at once.
Thanks Jason… I’m glad your interested in learning/ teaching experience with bio char For the past year or so I’ve been wondering with what there paying for logs in Colorado for bio char
It's strange that you're not saying Mount Baker Mining and Metal.
Haha, I have messed that up so many times and had to retake with S&J Forest Products!
Dig a long trench with the excavator, get a fire going (make sure you dig slanted air channels at each end), add fuel to the trench until your coal bed has the desired thickness, then cover the hole lot with dirt and let it cool off. This way you skip the need for kilns entirely, and can basically burn a tremendous amount of wastewood into charcoal at a time.
That's a good idea! I will try it in the future
I was just thinking the same thing or possibly just a big round hole with a Chunk of steel pipe for and air intake that you can pull out once the fire is rolling 👌and it would help to set all the big stuff next to the fire to preheat before adding in 👌
Yeah but then you have a big hole to fill in.
@@hickorydragon8114well where did the dirt go from the hole you dug .lol
I think that Jason from Mount Baker Forest Products needs to contact Jason at S&J Mining and Metals and see about having a hammer mill made that will bust some of those large pieces into uniform sized pieces and perhaps some of the smaller pieces as well broken down to be easy to scoop and shovel.....I was surprised with the intensity of that fire that you had so much left that was char and was not ashes I think you did extremely well......if those larger pieces were busted down to 4" X 4" or 3" X 3" I think you would have had a very consistent product
Why don't you just make a big 🔥
Run it all threw a screen and reburn the oversized 👌
Good idea!
Late to the party on this one but Cool! Could you use the metal and rock shredding equipment from MBMMLLC to increase the surface area of the bigger pieces? Might make a fun cross-over video
Where did you find that bin? The only metal barrels I can find used to have petroleum products in them
Borrowed it from my local scrap yard
good job, thanks for taking the time to make this video. good comments and ideas too. With your excavator I would dig a trench and a tapered hole like others suggested. I have a skid steer and do a tapered hole, then finish by putting some pieces of roof tin over it and then dirt on top. Make sure the pile is full and can help hold up the tin so it doesn't dip and crease. Drill a half inch hole in the panels and use that to hook them and drag them off in a couple of days. That way you get char with not too much dirt. Then I run it through an old chipper (wet it first then so you don't breath the "coal dust"). You'll figure it out I'm sure.
I would try both the trench and the hole to see which one you like better.
Came from the gold channel and I have to tell you man I’ll be watching here to. You are just a very interesting person and I’ve learned a lot from you. With that being said I live outside of Nashville and don’t have a way to put the stuff to use…….. but one day hopefully.
Thanks for watching!
Blancolirio channel has a more expensive solution to this problem. Just an FYI. Good video.....maybe scale it up a bit....I don't know. Merry Christmas!!
Thanks for the tip!
On a large scale you can fill a Conex container and close the doors to control air supply to the burn. They usually cut a hole in the sidewall and use a shutter valve to close off air supply when you want to stop the burn. There are several companies that make chunk charcoal using the Conex process.
That's cool! I could burn a ton of material in a conex!
What is biochar used for?
Soil amendments and carbon sequestration
New to this part of your channels….loving it. Perhaps explain the desire to make bio-char. What is it good for .
Could you explain the wood lot you have. I know you’ve logged and milled lumber. Are you replanting the trees that have been harvested or is that even part of your future plan for this property. Great content Jason. Thank you for sharing.
From farmers products purchasing industrial sector and from industrial sector purchasing export sector
For the big logs you might check out using a chipper to reduce it's size. Also think about a metal lid to cut off air flow after you fill the bin so you can let it burn in a low oxygen environment for longer
I find it best to use feedstock 3-4" and smaller, the larger the chunk the longer it takes to char or you will end up with pulpy bits that are uncarred. This is a great use for splash that's too small for firewood
That's a good idea! I am also experimenting with using the larger wood for firewood. Thanks
@@SJForestProducts I'm a fan of small wood. Burns quick and clean in the stove and heats mass stone and or water drums that radiate heat over hours and days
charge? Heat my last home anything above inch dia was great material to heat house. Anything big enough to need splitting should be turned into lumber
@@jeffbybee5207 however it might not be long enough to mill, or like the tree in his most recent video where it was hollow over 8' from the base
Looking at other charcoal producing sites, I see then stacking the wood closely and tightly. The light the center fire and once it start burning the pile is covered with dirt and left to burn for days. It’s then uncovered and charcoal is gathered.
I have made a lot of char from slash piles, burning them out in the open. A lot of times the char starts to build up around unburned pieces. That char as it accumulates, insulates those pieces from the heat. Since the heat is only being generated on top, where there is oxygen, the pieces buried in char get shielded from getting enough heat for pyrolysis. In the open I can move things around and move the unburned pieces to the top. I’m not sure how you would do that in your kiln.
Guessing weather's a big factor along with have a good area to put your fire pile!
Jason this guy has awesome content & footage on his channel, hopefully you have already watched it, if not it's a must 👍👌👌🧡
Thanks for the tips! I'm thinking I might try just burning the piles in the open as you suggest. The kiln is a good idea, but slow and maybe only a little more efficient(?) Burning the pile all at once and converting to 30% char or 50% char would be worth it bc it would only take a day and be much faster. Thanks again!
Bioenergy landscape agriculture small scale farmers development
I have seen this done by burning a sealed drum full of wood. Burn a large fire around it. Lumber Capital Log Yard did a video not long ago.
You can make a high quality charcoal using the barrel in barrel retort however the batch size is frustratingly small
Thanks for the tip! I have a ton of wood to burn though :)
@@SJForestProducts my boss grings the wood but here in Utah the government would have purple puppies if we burned hundreds of thousands of cubic yards
Trying to dig a trench, poured gas in length and fired it. Spectacular but heat goes up .1 /4 inch down ground still froze.
Thanks for putting this together Jason! I enjoy your videos where you talk about what you're doing and show some of the stuff you are experimenting with (Although just watching a sawmill run is strangely satisfying). It was good to see this first attempt! I'm still curious to see the success or failure of where you wrapped peat moss and growth hormone around tree bows in an effort to use them as future seedlings, I thought that was pretty cool!
As per this setup, I like what some of the other comments have suggested about sealing off the air while the batch is still hot to let the latent heat further process the larger pieces. Not sure where you are planning on finding some 8 foot containers to work with, but I wonder if you could experiment with the 6 foot container inside an 8 foot ring. Maybe set the 6' container on the ground like you have it, then set the 8' ring elevated about 6" off the ground on some blocks or just with little air hole trenches dug out, that way you have an super hot oxygen rich fire ring surounding the central burn. once the central ring is fully filled, cover it somehow (dirt or steel?) and let the heat from the outside fire ring keep it cooking over night. Obviously you can't get too complex, but I found your experiment interesting and so I shared my thoughts. It would be sort of like a larger version of the 55 gallon drums inside a dumpster that lumber capital log yard showed as mentioned in someone else's comment.
Thanks for watching! The peatmoss didn't do very well. I think only one branch survived and the rest died in our dry summer drought. Not sure that is a good way to go. I also like the metal lid idea. I think it would be easy to improve the system I have without too much work
if u covered that pile with dirt and lit that + let it burn for a bout 24h, then it all would be char.
Cool! Thanks for the tips!
Just one time bio char fertiliser land use change life cycle carbon capture storage food and feed energy and environment management
🍻👍
Hey Jason Would you make a video on how to buck logs for selling to the sawmill like I've been selling logs to the sawmill but they've not been bringing crap I think I've been not cutting the logs correctly to get the most money per log , like I've heard of sweep and stuff but do not know what that is
Will do! Selling to the mill is a little of a puzzle. Its hard to maximize your cash. Have you checked out my other video on valuing my logs? That might have some good info for you.
No I haven't but I'll sure go watch it now
What is value of firewood in your area? Would you not make more money selling the bigger wood even if you sit it? We get 125 a cord me, or 200 a cord my bosses price
Split it. Dumb autocorrect. Dumber poster
We get about $200-$300 per cord if its split and dried. Lots of work though!
From my own experience making biochar using 55 gallon drums. Once you had your container filled and packed down with burning coals ,instead of putting water on top to douse the fire you should have put a few inches of dirt on the top to seal it up. All that stored Heat would have baked the wood that had not been completely pyrolized yet and the lack of oxygen would have prevented the charcoal from actually burning. It would probably take a day or two for the heat to dissipate enough where you could open it up to salvage the biochar.
That is a good idea and something I will try in the future. I like the idea of keeping the heat in and pyrolyzing more wood
It will time sealing your char burner takes 12 hrs or more if your using4 to 6 inch logscontrol of your air is crucial to much its ash to little fire dies takes awhile to master for production but there is a market.
Agro forestry digital ecosystem
I wish I had that environment to work in.
Greetings from Brazil!
Great Video!
I make some biochar charcoal in my backyard. I can't always carbonize all the thicker pieces of wood, but it's not a problem. I noticed that this partially carbonized wood ends up having its constituent elements more decomposed (accelerating decomposition) generating a microenvironment very conducive to the growth of microorganisms, fungi, and worms. So I leave these pieces in strategic corners (moist and shaded) that end up being ways to help the soil microbiology. The mixture of a layer of charcoal with a core of cooked organic matter is a perfect incubator for this, perhaps imitating what happens in natural forest fires.
Once again, congratulations on the video.
They do it in jungles. Look at Tera Prater
With a second smaller container placed inside you could reasonbly easily build a TLUD retort. this would allow you to carbonize huge logs it cooks it at a higher temp making the char more complete. Good boichar will have a clinking sound similar to breaking glass when it drops on itself. it will leave a light dusty film that can rinse from your hands with only water. it would take most ot the day to build and load the fire but once iit is lit, it requires almost no attention, the gasses from the wood in the inner container will sustain the burn and will extinguish once the carbonization is complete.
Good idea! Thanks for the tips
Didn’t even know what Biochar is, learn something new everyday! Cool use of the slash piles too.
Thanks for watching!
Very interesting, thx! 😊
Oh! And another great field test! At least you have an idea. 👍💯🙏
wood pellets are a big deal here in Europe, used for both manual and automated wood heating stoves (not sure how it is called in english). You could produce your own machines for pellets (brickets) production. Pellets are easy to store, easy to transport. You can make money on both pellets and machines.
I like that idea! Pellets would be cool
@@SJForestProducts TBH, I think pellets making machines could give you more money. You have all the technology and know-how to make some turn-key pellet system. Crash wood enough, compress by some spiral press... Make few videos...
Great information. I will have to do this at work to break down my tree trimmings. What do you use the char for??
Soil amendments
You definitely want to stay away from wet stuff, too much time to dry out.
bigger rounds whole are too much time as well to burn, split them to about 3x3 and when the flames die down they will be chard all the way through.
Cool! Thanks for the tips
Snowed in Bremerton last night
If you load up the metal bin completely with wood and cap it off (like pile dirt on top, just to restrict the airflow, then feed a fire under the whole thing on the outside, you'll pyrolyze everything. You can also capture the wood alcohol vapor coming out of the wood to fuel the fire heating it.
Thanks for the tips! I might try that!
Still nice result, this experience has given you valuable results to draw conclusions and improve.
I agree! More work to do, but I'm smarter than I was yesterday
I make biochar on a small scale using metal gallon paint cans with holes in the lid. I fill it with my host wood, place the whole can in a larger fire and when the smoke stops coming from the can it's done.
Cool!
The trick is to let it burn more slowly.
Thanks for the tip!
Great job Jason. Thanks for taking some of the learning lumps for us and sharing them!
Thanks for watching!
I would love to come spend a weekend with you 😆 you do all kinds of cool stuff. People could learn a lot from you
Thanks for watching!
There is another method that's even lower tech that's digging a hole in the ground and tapering the sides
Yes! I have seen that on Cody's Lab. Seems like there is potential there too
Burn on screens . You have tons of aggregate screens so you could size the “ chars”
Good idea!
I think Cody's Lab did this and the conclusion wad to just light the pile and just put it out before it all turned to ash. That was agonizing to watch knowing that all you would need is a water truck and a couple charged lines just to burn the whole pile at once.
I remember that video! It was a good one. I think he dug a pit?
Do you sell the biochar to what kind of customers? How much do you chRge?
I haven't sold any yet, but a lot of the farmers around here would spread it on their fields. Maybe this spring
Thanks Jason… I’m glad your interested in learning/ teaching experience with bio char
For the past year or so I’ve been wondering with what there paying for logs in Colorado for bio char
Thanks! Its fun to try new things, especially with waste wood that is in your way. Turning junk into something useful is my favorite thing