Great design, the insulation is definitely one of the major reasons this works so well. That and having low moisture content charcoal material. This design is also great because you don't need water to quench the charcoal after the burn. Thanks for posting!
You are the first person in the US I've seen with this design... So glad you did. I found the design from aqsolutions working with folks in Thailand. Best design I've ever seen. Been using mine that I made for about 2 years now. Flawless char every time.
@@MrTswindell Copies; @hoongfu @urrywest 1. This design is excellent. It uses a minimum of materials, minimum of assembly labor, and is quite simplistic ! More parts means; more details & more assembly which opens the door to more failures. Failures both during assembly and during operation. A 1968 Volkswagon will give you more trouble free miles than any 2023 BMW, Audi, Caddy, or other car, etc. 2. Why three chambers ? This design has those same three functional components ! A. First Chamber: Firebox (Primary Burn). B. Second Chamber: Methane Collection. Just so happens that it 'DOUBLES' as the Pyrolysis Process Containment Chamber. C. Third Chamber: Methane Gas Manifold Burn Chamber (Secondary Burn). Which I assume is your Third Chamber. This design has the Third Chamber / Seconary Burn, cleverly integrated into both the Methane Collection / Pyrolysis Chamber and the Vent / Flu pipe. Brilliant ! ! ! This is a very clean design with no appendages hanging off the side to be knocked off or banged up. And no burner manifolds to rust-out at a later date. It also has a minimum of incursions to the original 55 gal. drum. Every cut or fitting is a place for stress failures and rust. If your thinking to control or collect the methane gas, that becomes a whole new conversation. 3. I do see one or two shortcomings in the design that I would like to offer my thoughts on. I really hate to see all that waste heat escaping into the atmoshpere. That is very inefficient. It is probably not enough to use to operate a cement plant*. SO . . . , It ought to have a turbine electric generator & a heat exchanger hooked up to that JET EXHAUST PIPE, so the whole neighborhood could gather in the Air-Conditioned artificial Hot Spring (way bigger than a hot tub) and enjoy some beverages ! ! ! :-) 4. So if anyone thinks they can cost effectively improve; the efficiency, safety, and durability of this design, come on back and show / tell us what you did. I am not trying to insult anyone but this design really does cover all the bases for a inexpensive, small, home, amature set-up. I love the holes at the bottom of the vent pipe ! That 3-4 feet exhaust flame and nearly whie hot pipe tells you that the actual burning of the methane is pretty efficient. * To make Portland Cement powder (not concrete) takes about 1800 degrees. Making cement is like the 2nd or 3rd most energy consuming industry in country.
Copies; @hoongfu @urrywest 1. This design is excellent. It uses a minimum of materials, minimum of assembly labor, and is quite simplistic ! More parts means; more details & more assembly which opens the door to more failures. Failures both during assembly and during operation. A 1968 Volkswagon will give you more trouble free miles than any 2023 BMW, Audi, Caddy, or other car, etc. 2. Why three chambers ? This design has those same three functional components ! A. First Chamber: Firebox (Primary Burn). B. Second Chamber: Methane Collection. Just so happens that it 'DOUBLES' as the Pyrolysis Process Containment Chamber. C. Third Chamber: Methane Gas Manifold Burn Chamber (Secondary Burn). Which I assume is your Third Chamber. This design has the Third Chamber / Seconary Burn, cleverly integrated into both the Methane Collection / Pyrolysis Chamber and the Vent / Flu pipe. Brilliant ! ! ! This is a very clean design with no appendages hanging off the side to be knocked off or banged up. And no burner manifolds to rust-out at a later date. It also has a minimum of incursions to the original 55 gal. drum. Every cut or fitting is a place for stress failures and rust. If your thinking to control or collect the methane gas, that becomes a whole new conversation. 3. I do see one or two shortcomings in the design that I would like to offer my thoughts on. I really hate to see all that waste heat escaping into the atmoshpere. That is very inefficient. It is probably not enough to use to operate a cement plant*. SO . . . , It ought to have a turbine electric generator & a heat exchanger hooked up to that JET EXHAUST PIPE, so the whole neighborhood could gather in the Air-Conditioned artificial Hot Spring (way bigger than a hot tub) and enjoy some beverages ! ! ! :-) 4. So if anyone thinks they can cost effectively improve; the efficiency, safety, and durability of this design, come on back and show / tell us what you did. I am not trying to insult anyone but this design really does cover all the bases for a inexpensive, small, home, amature set-up. I love the holes at the bottom of the vent pipe ! That 3-4 feet exhaust flame and nearly whie hot pipe tells you that the actual burning of the methane is pretty efficient. * To make Portland Cement powder (not concrete) takes about 1800 degrees. Making cement is like the 2nd or 3rd most energy consuming industry in country.
Thank you for the info sir. I was wondering if want to use coconut shell charcoal using this method, how efficient can it be? I mean to have 1 kg of charcoal, how many kgs of coconut shell i have to burn? Sorry for my bad English greetings from Indonesia sir
Do you need to keep feeding the break drum (fire box) with wood or is it just a one time fill up. If you do need to keep feeding the break drum, it doesnt look like there is that much space to shove a piece of wood in. Thanks for the video.
This is great MrTswindell! Much more efficient than the way I am doing it now. I got to wondering if a larger diameter ring skip welded to the bottom of the barrel with a holed stub welded to it would work.....then one could have a replaceable sheet metal stove pipe to put on for the riser. Definitely going to have to give this a try. Thank You Very Much for sharing your masterpiece.
Thanks for your comments. I don't think a sheet metal stack would last very long because of the high heat and duration of the pyrolysis process. Watch part 3 the night burn. You'll see how hot that ⅛" stack can get. Best wishes and Charcoal On!
@@MrTswindell great point! I am currently using a sheet metal stack (maybe 12 burns) & it gets glowing hot like yours does. I'll have to give it a try & see how it stands up over time, could be it's a disposable item over time.... I'm 67 and am looking for ways to keep the weight down when dumping it since I don't have the muscle mass of my youth. Thanks Again & Best Regards
I think the ultimate is to have three chambers: a stack where the gasses excape from the top and are forced down to the bottom where they burn at the bottom then a covering chamber where the burn hapens and goes throught the stack at the top...
Copies; @hoongfu @urrywest 1. This design is excellent. It uses a minimum of materials, minimum of assembly labor, and is quite simplistic ! More parts means; more details & more assembly which opens the door to more failures. Failures both during assembly and during operation. A 1968 Volkswagon will give you more trouble free miles than any 2023 BMW, Audi, Caddy, or other car, etc. 2. Why three chambers ? This design has those same three functional components ! A. First Chamber: Firebox (Primary Burn). B. Second Chamber: Methane Collection. Just so happens that it 'DOUBLES' as the Pyrolysis Process Containment Chamber. C. Third Chamber: Methane Gas Manifold Burn Chamber (Secondary Burn). Which I assume is your Third Chamber. This design has the Third Chamber / Seconary Burn, cleverly integrated into both the Methane Collection / Pyrolysis Chamber and the Vent / Flu pipe. Brilliant ! ! ! This is a very clean design with no appendages hanging off the side to be knocked off or banged up. And no burner manifolds to rust-out at a later date. It also has a minimum of incursions to the original 55 gal. drum. Every cut or fitting is a place for stress failures and rust. If your thinking to control or collect the methane gas, that becomes a whole new conversation. 3. I do see one or two shortcomings in the design that I would like to offer my thoughts on. I really hate to see all that waste heat escaping into the atmoshpere. That is very inefficient. It is probably not enough to use to operate a cement plant*. SO . . . , It ought to have a turbine electric generator & a heat exchanger hooked up to that JET EXHAUST PIPE, so the whole neighborhood could gather in the Air-Conditioned artificial Hot Spring (way bigger than a hot tub) and enjoy some beverages ! ! ! :-) 4. So if anyone thinks they can cost effectively improve; the efficiency, safety, and durability of this design, come on back and show / tell us what you did. I am not trying to insult anyone but this design really does cover all the bases for a inexpensive, small, home, amature set-up. I love the holes at the bottom of the vent pipe ! That 3-4 feet exhaust flame and nearly whie hot pipe tells you that the actual burning of the methane is pretty efficient. * To make Portland Cement powder (not concrete) takes about 1800 degrees. Making cement is like the 2nd or 3rd most energy consuming industry in country.
@@BillSmith-fx7xx This is the stack that the Buddhist monks like... Others, I think they are in Tiland like to have a gas return from the top that burns at the bottom... Right now I don't remember all the details but it certainly is important not to have holes at the top and the bottom in the charcoal chamber or you will burn all of your charcoal.... Other sollutions are direct burn, turn over and smother... This design is better than that. Like you said it is simple and hopefully gets no leaks at the bottom...
@@urrywest Thanks for your reply. It is true that most of the retorts are 'tight' and only have only one vent. Usually a pipe arrangement. But when this design retort is running it is producing so much methane it has a 'positve pressure' outward. Therefore, no outside air / oxygen can get in to the retort. In theory you could have multiple outflow pipes on any of the designs I have seen. You could run a second pipe to a small burner and cook your meal while you were waiting for the pyrolysis to finish. The fact that this has a tiny outward leakage is really of no cosequence. If it was inside a building you would need to guide the unburned gas leakage to an exit. When he was 'dirting' that flame at the top it really made little difference. Of course we really want all of our methane to go to our 'secondary' burn(er) location. Also stopping that burn near the hole in the long run probably keeps it from deteriorating the lid and becoming an even bigger hole. He had that lid and that pipe really close ! If that had more than an 1/8 " inch all the way around the circumference, you would probably lose half your mathane out the top. It looked to me like he only had about 1/16" inch around maybe 1/3 of the circumference. You could do a lot of work to make it tighter but would probably be more effort than it is worth. As we could see, the results speak for themselves. Since he was a metal worker previously he had some tools and skills some people may not have access to for assembly. For some people some exterior piping and a couple fittings might be the easier assembly. You could source a hot water heater manifold (new/used) and that would work. Or take a pipe and drill 3 or 4 holes in it. I understand your concern with post-pyro oxygen exposure. We sure don't want our fresh charcoal to burn up before we get to use it ! He responded in one of the replies that he had not had any problem with that happening. Just keep an eye on the thing for the first hour of the post-pyro burn. Mr. Tsiwell has done it several times. I will trust his design and take his word for it. I was surprised how fast it worked compared to the other videos I have seen. It appears you can trade heat for time. Even the drum was red hot ! I do not know the chemistry that turns the wood black and into charcoal but an important part of the process is to get the methane out of the wood. This design clearly accomplishes that in record time ! Did you know that when you burn a normal log fire (open pit / fireplace) a large portion of the flames is the methane coming out. I enjoyed your kind reply and the chance to have more discussion. One word of caution, do not put any closable valves on your design. Unless you really know what you are doing, if a valve(s) is accidentally closed during the process you will end up with a pressure explosion accompanied by a flaming methane explosion ! It'll ruin your day. Good luck. Get your new retort made and let me/us know hiw it comes out !
@@BillSmith-fx7xx I have a problem where I am on a popular beach and made a popular fire pit.... The people who use the fire pit mostly bring kiln dried comercial wood and put it out after an hour.... I get a lot of charcoal build up which is not helped by the fact that I brought copioius amounts of saw dust from a local construction site as a burning medium.. The sand has more the consistancy of dirt which doesn't let air in so that the coals can burn in the sand. My solution is to mix in some potasiium nitrate [salt peter] in the sand before a large burn..... I tend to burn much more than most people and walk away with it burning..... I hope it works. I am sure it will burn down into a pit if it does.
Sir how if the pipe on top cutt of and weld to the cap For antisipation leaking. and pipe inside weld too to the furnace botom for make it easy instalment. Regard for You from Indonesia. 🙏
You want the retort to disassemble for easier loading and unloading of the wood stock and the charcoal that's left at the end of the process. 55 gallons of wood gets heavy. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Best wishes.
One more question... after the fire is no longer self sustaining and pyrolysis is finished, do you cover up the fire box with dirt to cut off the oxygen? Thanks again.
I have never covered up anything after pyrolysis. I have always let it run its course and cool down over night. Never found ash in the charcoal or had a loss. Good question Michael.
As hot as this design burns and the fact that it finishes by burning only the internally derived methane gas, seems to mean there is nothing left to carry on any combustion when it burns out.. Also, when it burns out it is self evacuating. It has holes at the bottom from the Pyro chamber direct to the Vent and the hole thru the lid is NOT 'air-tight'. Once the methane gas is gone, it will slowly circulate cool outside air into the pyro chamber. Some designs don't burn the methane so they are some what guessing as to when the pyro process is complete. Plus they are continually using an external fuel source and are more likely to want to stop early to save fuel. They can use some of the heat already built up to finish the pyrolysis process. That runs the risk of having some residual methane when the chamber is opened but most are not 'air-tight' anyway. They can save their fuel/wood for the next charcoal run. As long as there is no fire left in the firebox, as stated, there is really no ignition source for the 'freshly made' charcoal. This brings up two interesting questions. How loose can the hole thru the lid be before it degrades the process ? What does the temperature need to be to cause spontaneous combustion of charcoal when exposed to air ? This is the first retort I have seen that is open at both ends. I would almost bet you could unload this charcoal within 30 minutes of burning out the methane. JUST DON'T BUMP THE VENT PIPE ! You will become the spontaneous combustion !
The more openings you have, the more chances for oxygen to get in during the pyrolysis process. If that happens you'll have nothing but ash left when you open the drum. Great question. Thanks for asking.
MrTswindell, how long it took you to create that charcoal from the moment you started the fire till the flames stopped running on itself? Were you adding some wood after and hour or two hours? Thank you kindly for your answer and time. ...Cheers .. :)
Total time, starting from lighting the fire underneath till the flame dies out of the stack I'd say 2 hours. It takes about an hour to get pyrolysis started. Then it takes about an hour for the wood in the barrel to char. I added small pieces of wood in the first hour to keep the fire going but after it becomes self-sustained no added wood is needed. It's very important to use completely dry wood for in the drum. If it's even slightly damp you'll spend more time and startup fuel trying to achieve pyrolysis. Hope that helps and sorry for not getting back to you sooner.
@@MrTswindell Thank you so very much Mr. Tswindell, please no need to say sorry as this helps me tremendously as my process takes me about 5hrs, takes me around 1.5 hrs for the barrel to become selfsustained and next 3-3.5 hrs till the flames stop coming out from the pipe and it stops itself. The first mistake I see is that my wood is not really dry, and I am using a beech tree wood, also my fireplace is made of bricks and there is air coming in so I must be loosing heat there, and I see if I would have it made from metal to cover the whole bottom, it would build temperature inside the barrel much faster, so these are things that I have to work on, but thank you once again from the bottom of my heart, this really helps me indeed. All very best for you and your loved ones.
Be sure your wood is dry. I have the same problem if the wood isn't completely dry and no bigger than 3 inches square. Try running the batch again to finish the charing process.
I've made sure that the wood used in the burning chamber is dry. It's flaming up at the bottom. But it doesn't up to the top like a rocket. Sealed up all the holes where the air can get out in the chamber, and i still can seem to produce a torch. Hmmm
@@swow1234 I could give you a better diagnosis if I could see what's going on. If you get a chance make a video and post it for review. Show the structural pieces of the retort and your process. I may be able to spot something from that. Keep trying and I'm sure that you will figure it out.
Wish I had found this video before I built mine, this is WAY more efficient than the one I have. Going to be building one of these soon.
Great design, the insulation is definitely one of the major reasons this works so well. That and having low moisture content charcoal material. This design is also great because you don't need water to quench the charcoal after the burn. Thanks for posting!
I am trying to make one, it’s so educating, christal clear explanation, Thank you 👍
Great job, fun project!
You are the first person in the US I've seen with this design... So glad you did. I found the design from aqsolutions working with folks in Thailand. Best design I've ever seen. Been using mine that I made for about 2 years now. Flawless char every time.
thank you sir. its very clear tutorial. I'm educated so much.
great job and great video, make yourself a half lid
Thanks for the video and going through all the detail explaining everything. I'll be making some refinements to my retort.
Your welcome.
@@MrTswindell
Copies; @hoongfu @urrywest
1. This design is excellent. It uses a minimum of materials, minimum of assembly labor, and is quite simplistic ! More parts means; more details & more assembly which opens the door to more failures. Failures both during assembly and during operation. A 1968 Volkswagon will give you more trouble free miles than any 2023 BMW, Audi, Caddy, or other car, etc.
2. Why three chambers ? This design has those same three functional components !
A. First Chamber: Firebox (Primary Burn).
B. Second Chamber: Methane Collection. Just so happens that it 'DOUBLES' as the Pyrolysis Process Containment Chamber.
C. Third Chamber: Methane Gas Manifold Burn Chamber (Secondary Burn). Which I assume is your Third Chamber. This design has the Third Chamber / Seconary Burn, cleverly integrated into both the Methane Collection / Pyrolysis Chamber and the Vent / Flu pipe. Brilliant ! ! !
This is a very clean design with no appendages hanging off the side to be knocked off or banged up. And no burner manifolds to rust-out at a later date. It also has a minimum of incursions to the original 55 gal. drum. Every cut or fitting is a place for stress failures and rust. If your thinking to control or collect the methane gas, that becomes a whole new conversation.
3. I do see one or two shortcomings in the design that I would like to offer my thoughts on. I really hate to see all that waste heat escaping into the atmoshpere. That is very inefficient. It is probably not enough to use to operate a cement plant*. SO . . . , It ought to have a turbine electric generator & a heat exchanger hooked up to that JET EXHAUST PIPE, so the whole neighborhood could gather in the Air-Conditioned artificial Hot Spring (way bigger than a hot tub) and enjoy some beverages ! ! ! :-)
4. So if anyone thinks they can cost effectively improve; the efficiency, safety, and durability of this design, come on back and show / tell us what you did. I am not trying to insult anyone but this design really does cover all the bases for a inexpensive, small, home, amature set-up. I love the holes at the bottom of the vent pipe ! That 3-4 feet exhaust flame and nearly whie hot pipe tells you that the actual burning of the methane is pretty efficient.
* To make Portland Cement powder (not concrete) takes about 1800 degrees. Making cement is like the 2nd or 3rd most energy consuming industry in country.
Copies; @hoongfu @urrywest
1. This design is excellent. It uses a minimum of materials, minimum of assembly labor, and is quite simplistic ! More parts means; more details & more assembly which opens the door to more failures. Failures both during assembly and during operation. A 1968 Volkswagon will give you more trouble free miles than any 2023 BMW, Audi, Caddy, or other car, etc.
2. Why three chambers ? This design has those same three functional components !
A. First Chamber: Firebox (Primary Burn).
B. Second Chamber: Methane Collection. Just so happens that it 'DOUBLES' as the Pyrolysis Process Containment Chamber.
C. Third Chamber: Methane Gas Manifold Burn Chamber (Secondary Burn). Which I assume is your Third Chamber. This design has the Third Chamber / Seconary Burn, cleverly integrated into both the Methane Collection / Pyrolysis Chamber and the Vent / Flu pipe. Brilliant ! ! !
This is a very clean design with no appendages hanging off the side to be knocked off or banged up. And no burner manifolds to rust-out at a later date. It also has a minimum of incursions to the original 55 gal. drum. Every cut or fitting is a place for stress failures and rust. If your thinking to control or collect the methane gas, that becomes a whole new conversation.
3. I do see one or two shortcomings in the design that I would like to offer my thoughts on. I really hate to see all that waste heat escaping into the atmoshpere. That is very inefficient. It is probably not enough to use to operate a cement plant*. SO . . . , It ought to have a turbine electric generator & a heat exchanger hooked up to that JET EXHAUST PIPE, so the whole neighborhood could gather in the Air-Conditioned artificial Hot Spring (way bigger than a hot tub) and enjoy some beverages ! ! ! :-)
4. So if anyone thinks they can cost effectively improve; the efficiency, safety, and durability of this design, come on back and show / tell us what you did. I am not trying to insult anyone but this design really does cover all the bases for a inexpensive, small, home, amature set-up. I love the holes at the bottom of the vent pipe ! That 3-4 feet exhaust flame and nearly whie hot pipe tells you that the actual burning of the methane is pretty efficient.
* To make Portland Cement powder (not concrete) takes about 1800 degrees. Making cement is like the 2nd or 3rd most energy consuming industry in country.
If we were neighbors we would be in so much trouble 😂
Glad to see your video before I started
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude, that yield is great.
Thank you for the info sir. I was wondering if want to use coconut shell charcoal using this method, how efficient can it be? I mean to have 1 kg of charcoal, how many kgs of coconut shell i have to burn? Sorry for my bad English greetings from Indonesia sir
Do you need to keep feeding the break drum (fire box) with wood or is it just a one time fill up. If you do need to keep feeding the break drum, it doesnt look like there is that much space to shove a piece of wood in. Thanks for the video.
It depends on how dry the wood is in the barrel. If I have to feed more wood I just drop it in the burn tube.
Thank you👋👋👋
This is great MrTswindell! Much more efficient than the way I am doing it now. I got to wondering if a larger diameter ring skip welded to the bottom of the barrel with a holed stub welded to it would work.....then one could have a replaceable sheet metal stove pipe to put on for the riser. Definitely going to have to give this a try. Thank You Very Much for sharing your masterpiece.
Thanks for your comments. I don't think a sheet metal stack would last very long because of the high heat and duration of the pyrolysis process. Watch part 3 the night burn. You'll see how hot that ⅛" stack can get. Best wishes and Charcoal On!
@@MrTswindell great point! I am currently using a sheet metal stack (maybe 12 burns) & it gets glowing hot like yours does. I'll have to give it a try & see how it stands up over time, could be it's a disposable item over time.... I'm 67 and am looking for ways to keep the weight down when dumping it since I don't have the muscle mass of my youth.
Thanks Again & Best Regards
I think the ultimate is to have three chambers: a stack where the gasses excape from the top and are forced down to the bottom where they burn at the bottom then a covering chamber where the burn hapens and goes throught the stack at the top...
Copies; @hoongfu @urrywest
1. This design is excellent. It uses a minimum of materials, minimum of assembly labor, and is quite simplistic ! More parts means; more details & more assembly which opens the door to more failures. Failures both during assembly and during operation. A 1968 Volkswagon will give you more trouble free miles than any 2023 BMW, Audi, Caddy, or other car, etc.
2. Why three chambers ? This design has those same three functional components !
A. First Chamber: Firebox (Primary Burn).
B. Second Chamber: Methane Collection. Just so happens that it 'DOUBLES' as the Pyrolysis Process Containment Chamber.
C. Third Chamber: Methane Gas Manifold Burn Chamber (Secondary Burn). Which I assume is your Third Chamber. This design has the Third Chamber / Seconary Burn, cleverly integrated into both the Methane Collection / Pyrolysis Chamber and the Vent / Flu pipe. Brilliant ! ! !
This is a very clean design with no appendages hanging off the side to be knocked off or banged up. And no burner manifolds to rust-out at a later date. It also has a minimum of incursions to the original 55 gal. drum. Every cut or fitting is a place for stress failures and rust. If your thinking to control or collect the methane gas, that becomes a whole new conversation.
3. I do see one or two shortcomings in the design that I would like to offer my thoughts on. I really hate to see all that waste heat escaping into the atmoshpere. That is very inefficient. It is probably not enough to use to operate a cement plant*. SO . . . , It ought to have a turbine electric generator & a heat exchanger hooked up to that JET EXHAUST PIPE, so the whole neighborhood could gather in the Air-Conditioned artificial Hot Spring (way bigger than a hot tub) and enjoy some beverages ! ! ! :-)
4. So if anyone thinks they can cost effectively improve; the efficiency, safety, and durability of this design, come on back and show / tell us what you did. I am not trying to insult anyone but this design really does cover all the bases for a inexpensive, small, home, amature set-up. I love the holes at the bottom of the vent pipe ! That 3-4 feet exhaust flame and nearly whie hot pipe tells you that the actual burning of the methane is pretty efficient.
* To make Portland Cement powder (not concrete) takes about 1800 degrees. Making cement is like the 2nd or 3rd most energy consuming industry in country.
@@BillSmith-fx7xx This is the stack that the Buddhist monks like... Others, I think they are in Tiland like to have a gas return from the top that burns at the bottom... Right now I don't remember all the details but it certainly is important not to have holes at the top and the bottom in the charcoal chamber or you will burn all of your charcoal....
Other sollutions are direct burn, turn over and smother... This design is better than that.
Like you said it is simple and hopefully gets no leaks at the bottom...
@@urrywest Thanks for your reply. It is true that most of the retorts are 'tight' and only have only one vent. Usually a pipe arrangement. But when this design retort is running it is producing so much methane it has a 'positve pressure' outward. Therefore, no outside air / oxygen can get in to the retort. In theory you could have multiple outflow pipes on any of the designs I have seen. You could run a second pipe to a small burner and cook your meal while you were waiting for the pyrolysis to finish. The fact that this has a tiny outward leakage is really of no cosequence. If it was inside a building you would need to guide the unburned gas leakage to an exit.
When he was 'dirting' that flame at the top it really made little difference. Of course we really want all of our methane to go to our 'secondary' burn(er) location. Also stopping that burn near the hole in the long run probably keeps it from deteriorating the lid and becoming an even bigger hole. He had that lid and that pipe really close ! If that had more than an 1/8 " inch all the way around the circumference, you would probably lose half your mathane out the top. It looked to me like he only had about 1/16" inch around maybe 1/3 of the circumference. You could do a lot of work to make it tighter but would probably be more effort than it is worth. As we could see, the results speak for themselves.
Since he was a metal worker previously he had some tools and skills some people may not have access to for assembly. For some people some exterior piping and a couple fittings might be the easier assembly. You could source a hot water heater manifold (new/used) and that would work. Or take a pipe and drill 3 or 4 holes in it.
I understand your concern with post-pyro oxygen exposure. We sure don't want our fresh charcoal to burn up before we get to use it ! He responded in one of the replies that he had not had any problem with that happening. Just keep an eye on the thing for the first hour of the post-pyro burn. Mr. Tsiwell has done it several times. I will trust his design and take his word for it.
I was surprised how fast it worked compared to the other videos I have seen. It appears you can trade heat for time. Even the drum was red hot ! I do not know the chemistry that turns the wood black and into charcoal but an important part of the process is to get the methane out of the wood. This design clearly accomplishes that in record time ! Did you know that when you burn a normal log fire (open pit / fireplace) a large portion of the flames is the methane coming out.
I enjoyed your kind reply and the chance to have more discussion. One word of caution, do not put any closable valves on your design. Unless you really know what you are doing, if a valve(s) is accidentally closed during the process you will end up with a pressure explosion accompanied by a flaming methane explosion ! It'll ruin your day.
Good luck. Get your new retort made and let me/us know hiw it comes out !
@@urrywest
YT search:
Hookway retort Wassledine Medium
@@BillSmith-fx7xx I have a problem where I am on a popular beach and made a popular fire pit.... The people who use the fire pit mostly bring kiln dried comercial wood and put it out after an hour.... I get a lot of charcoal build up which is not helped by the fact that I brought copioius amounts of saw dust from a local construction site as a burning medium.. The sand has more the consistancy of dirt which doesn't let air in so that the coals can burn in the sand.
My solution is to mix in some potasiium nitrate [salt peter] in the sand before a large burn..... I tend to burn much more than most people and walk away with it burning..... I hope it works. I am sure it will burn down into a pit if it does.
It would be good to do a video of the charcoal burning in a heap then spead out to cook with.
Too see how well the paralysis went. Cheers
Sam I'm uploading a video of that as I am typing right now. Enjoy!
Você não coleta a fumaça líquida?
English please
คุณทำดีมาก👍👍😍
👍🏻
Sir
how if the pipe on top
cutt of and weld to the cap
For antisipation leaking.
and
pipe inside weld too to the furnace botom
for make it easy instalment.
Regard for You
from
Indonesia. 🙏
You want the retort to disassemble for easier loading and unloading of the wood stock and the charcoal that's left at the end of the process. 55 gallons of wood gets heavy. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Best wishes.
One more question... after the fire is no longer self sustaining and pyrolysis is finished, do you cover up the fire box with dirt to cut off the oxygen? Thanks again.
I have never covered up anything after pyrolysis. I have always let it run its course and cool down over night. Never found ash in the charcoal or had a loss. Good question Michael.
As hot as this design burns and the fact that it finishes by burning only the internally derived methane gas, seems to mean there is nothing left to carry on any combustion when it burns out.. Also, when it burns out it is self evacuating. It has holes at the bottom from the Pyro chamber direct to the Vent and the hole thru the lid is NOT 'air-tight'. Once the methane gas is gone, it will slowly circulate cool outside air into the pyro chamber. Some designs don't burn the methane so they are some what guessing as to when the pyro process is complete. Plus they are continually using an external fuel source and are more likely to want to stop early to save fuel. They can use some of the heat already built up to finish the pyrolysis process. That runs the risk of having some residual methane when the chamber is opened but most are not 'air-tight' anyway. They can save their fuel/wood for the next charcoal run. As long as there is no fire left in the firebox, as stated, there is really no ignition source for the 'freshly made' charcoal.
This brings up two interesting questions. How loose can the hole thru the lid be before it degrades the process ? What does the temperature need to be to cause spontaneous combustion of charcoal when exposed to air ? This is the first retort I have seen that is open at both ends.
I would almost bet you could unload this charcoal within 30 minutes of burning out the methane. JUST DON'T BUMP THE VENT PIPE ! You will become the spontaneous combustion !
A link to part 1 would be great! :)
Here ya go. th-cam.com/video/shPfCDEtxFQ/w-d-xo.html
Thank You so much for these videos. Where did you source your 6" tube
Our local steel supplier carries a large selection of steel products. It wasn't difficult to find, but that 4' piece cost me $70 or $80.
Would it be too hard to add a door on the bottom so you can empty the contents?
The more openings you have, the more chances for oxygen to get in during the pyrolysis process. If that happens you'll have nothing but ash left when you open the drum. Great question. Thanks for asking.
MrTswindell, how long it took you to create that charcoal from the moment you started the fire till the flames stopped running on itself? Were you adding some wood after and hour or two hours? Thank you kindly for your answer and time. ...Cheers .. :)
Total time, starting from lighting the fire underneath till the flame dies out of the stack I'd say 2 hours. It takes about an hour to get pyrolysis started. Then it takes about an hour for the wood in the barrel to char. I added small pieces of wood in the first hour to keep the fire going but after it becomes self-sustained no added wood is needed. It's very important to use completely dry wood for in the drum. If it's even slightly damp you'll spend more time and startup fuel trying to achieve pyrolysis. Hope that helps and sorry for not getting back to you sooner.
@@MrTswindell Thank you so very much Mr. Tswindell, please no need to say sorry as this helps me tremendously as my process takes me about 5hrs, takes me around 1.5 hrs for the barrel to become selfsustained and next 3-3.5 hrs till the flames stop coming out from the pipe and it stops itself. The first mistake I see is that my wood is not really dry, and I am using a beech tree wood, also my fireplace is made of bricks and there is air coming in so I must be loosing heat there, and I see if I would have it made from metal to cover the whole bottom, it would build temperature inside the barrel much faster, so these are things that I have to work on, but thank you once again from the bottom of my heart, this really helps me indeed. All very best for you and your loved ones.
My retort doesn't produce flame up to the top. It just stays at the bottom. And i keep refilling wood. Any advise?
Be sure your wood is dry. I have the same problem if the wood isn't completely dry and no bigger than 3 inches square. Try running the batch again to finish the charing process.
@@MrTswindell ok thanks
Also, Insulating the barrel and sealing it is key. Hope these suggestions helped.
I've made sure that the wood used in the burning chamber is dry. It's flaming up at the bottom. But it doesn't up to the top like a rocket. Sealed up all the holes where the air can get out in the chamber, and i still can seem to produce a torch. Hmmm
@@swow1234 I could give you a better diagnosis if I could see what's going on. If you get a chance make a video and post it for review. Show the structural pieces of the retort and your process. I may be able to spot something from that.
Keep trying and I'm sure that you will figure it out.
9: 28 They aren't pretty holes LOL!!! 😂
What is material the middle tube you use??
6 inch diameter steel tubing. 4 feet long.
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Yes I saw it in one of Jon Jandai Life is Easy videos.