Backyard Biochar with Abraham Cluxton
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 มี.ค. 2015
- Abraham Cluxton teaches how he made his own homemade biochar cookstoves that produce high quality charcoal for inoculation and inclusion in gardens/farms. Learn the basics of how a biochar cookstove works and how you can put one together to begin your own small scale production that can transform wood waste into activated charcoal; a useful material to have on hand and one that can become charged with biology to make a stellar garden amendment.
The best plain English explanation of the process I've seen. Can't believe the low number of likes.
Outstanding video. This gave me a ton of new ideas for things to try, not just making biochar, but also modifications to my rocket stove. .
This was an excellent video! I live in Canada and have a homestead. We burn quite a bit of wood here! I think I will modify these ideas a little to make biochar in a container in my wood stove to make biochar there while heating my house for winter as well. Also I plan to make a tin man now to replace my wood chipper. I love the quietness and the long term soil improvement that is possible through this process. Having a good charcoal supply for BBQ season sounds pretty sweet too!
Thank-you! From Littlehampton in England
Incredible knowledge. Thanks
This is good explanation. Will start this in Malawi
Nice video
Thanks for sharing
Awesome
If you ever want to do a video in a studio with good lighting be a plus in see the many points and design differences. Thanks
Where/how are you 'siphoning off' the water, wood vinegar and tar byproducts you mentioned?
Can wet wood be use in producing biochar?
You suggest charging the biochar with diluted urine. Would it be okay to use straight uring without diluting it?
What size containers are you using and where to find them?
Instead of a rocket stove, can we substitute it with Used Oil Burner?
Can you make Biochar with a cinderblock rocket stove??
You have to build it so oxygen can't get in. Cinder block is very porous I wouldn't do it. The easiest way is to use the "dig a hole and cover it" method.
Cool stuff. Cldnt tell if he was serious/sarcastic when they asked if they cld Vegamix biochar, and he said, “Yeah., sure.” Lol. And for the garden: “Or if you just pee on it, it’ll be ready instantly.” Lol.
I watched other videos and it’s a good idea to let it soak up stuff you put into it for up to 3 weeks at least.
Can you please spell out the brand name of the Rocket stove?
Contents were OK, but very poor quality of light & overall filming! Wish it were corrected without delay. Thanks!
Someone please tell the camera person that the sun should be behind him.
Making charcoal is not the same as making biochar. Biochar must be inoculated with minerals, water, and bacteria/fungi. Fastest you can make biochar is 6 weeks to 3 months.
Otherwise it can take 1-3 YEARS before you see results.
The charcoal they made is suitable as 'Cowboy Charcoal' for use in a grill.
I used oak heating pellets. Why?
They made the perfect size for mixing in the garden soil.
Big chunks don't do much as they have a small surface area compared to the pellets I made.
A spoonful of small biochar pellets can have between 1 football field and 10,000 sq ft of surface area.
how do you make pellets...process please!
@@chriskladis9522 Several ways actually.
You can buy a tube online that you fill with wood, twigs, or pellets then toss it in a wood burning stove for about 4 hours.
What I did was buy a stainless steel stock pot, 12 quart (or roughly 12L).
I filled it with Oak heating pellets.
I placed it in a wood burning stove (the one I used was quite large).
If a pot like that is too big, buy a smaller one that fits.
I places the stainless steel lid on top, a small log to hold it in place, then built a fire around it.
Depending on the wood used in the fire (some burn hotter and longer than others), it took me about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to 'cook' those pellets.
How I knew they were finished is that when the vapors burnd off, I waited about 30 minutes or so before removing the pot.
LEAVE THE LID ON!
If you do not leave the lid on, the charcoal inside will flash and burn you.
Set it aside for about 1/2 hour or until cool to the touch.
I bought bags of those heating pellets. Much easier and far far less work than using twigs,
When cooled and finished, you simply pour them into a large bucket filled with water and whatever else you want in the water (Epsom Salts and sulfur free molasses was my choice). You can even use urine in that water if desired.
And let it sit until all the charcoal pellets sink to the bottom.
If after a few hours or overnight some still float, skim them off the top. Put those into your pot with other pellets to make another batch.
You then strain the good saturated pellets from the solution (Keep and reuse any solution left).
Allowing them to air dry is a good thing but not required.
It is time consuming but pretty easy to do, especially if you are heating with a wood stove anyway.
Note: Do not place something very heavy on that lid when cooking the pellets. It is possible you could have disastrous results (explosion).
You want to let the vapors leak out and burn inside the wood stove (think of it is free heat in a way).
Do NOT try to convert 'green wood' and you will make creosote in your wood stove and chimney.
Another way people can make them is a container in a camp fire. But that takes longer and you must monitor it constant for safety reasons.
If you are a nerd, you would want to regulate the temperature to about 600C constantly.
If you used chunks of wood or twigs, then you have the smash them gently to break them into smaller pieces. Messy and takes a lot of labor.
The pellets are nearly the ideal size for a garden. Not too big and not too small.
BUT, the sludge in the bottom of your water bucket is still good. Just harder to mix into the soil.
I saved mine for flower pots.
Smaller pieces of the biochar have more surface area. Too small and some can wash out in the rain.
Too big and not enough surface area.
The typical goal is to have about 8% to 10% biochar to soil mix.
Much depends on the plants. Some like it, some hate it.
Adding biochar to the soil is a permanent soil amendment.
Goal is to recreate Amazonian Black Earth, the most fertile soil on the planet.
@@chriskladis9522 You try using wood pellets to make biochar yet?
@@crazysquirrel9425. Very interesting! I’m completely new to this and just started diving into this topic. We have a wood burning fireplace we use in the winter time and was thinking of trying something similar to what you’re doing but was concerned about the safety aspect of it. Just thought it would be pretty neat to make biochar through out the winter in a place where I already have a fire going anyway. So I have a few questions. Do you drill any small holes in the pot to let the gases escape or is the “ loose “ lid enough? Also how do you know when it’s done cooking? Thanks
@@user-lr1sq8fp7j Ever put a pot on top of the stove that has a lid? Ever notice how the steam vents out around the lip of the lid? That is how I do mine.
Just set the lid on top (sometimes I place a SMALL log to hold the lid in place on top but not a heavy one). Just setting the lid on top is fine for the way I do mine.
At first you see steam venting. Then it slowly starts offgassing and catching on fire (gases). Venting speed picks up as time goes on.
I usually wait till it stops venting and burning then wait another 30 minutes just to be sure No hurry either.
I used a Walmart stainless steel stock pot with metal lid.
For a wood burner (typical one which is quite small), you would need a horizontal container. Yes they do make those.
If you make one yourself, you need to drill some 1/4" holes on the bottom of one of the end caps (one each end).
Some folks drill along the bottom of the horizontal container. As the gases burn off, they help heat the container. Increases efficiency.
Certain materials you want to convert will work faster than others.
Coffee grounds dang near impossible to convert at least in any reasonable amount of time. Took me 2 days on that pot I used and they STILL all did not convert.
Another problematic material is saw dust.
Apparently there needs to be some gaps in the materials used for proper venting and such to work.
Best material I convert was Oak heating pellets. They have about 10% moisture (better than most any dried wood you can make). Final size is nearly perfect - easy to apply and does not wash off with the slightest breeze. And NO SMASHING! They end up about the size of perlite pellets.
Want a HOT material to convert? Whole pecans. Those things can roar when converting.
To avoid wasting any of them, only convert those older than 9 months. Before then you waste food...
Some people convert and have large pieces and chunks. Far too big for the plant to benefit from vs smaller pieces.
Note: if you decide to use paint cans, you must first burn off the coating inside the can and lid.
You also need to punch or drill 3 to 4 one quarter inch holes in the lid.
I tried paint cans. Last about 5 burns before burning out.
where can I puchase a 55 gallon barrel and a 30 gallon barrel? and get lessons on this info? Thank you! Jackie
Jackie Marsh look on Craigslist or FB marketplace
Does anyone have a better answer than this? I found a 55 gallon bucket fir 15.00 locally but no low cost 30 gal
9:21. Fire hot
I cant find a 30 gal barrel under $130.00. Any suggestions Im in Portland Oregon
You can fabricate urs.
do you know about seachar?
+Jeffery Dodson - Oh yeah... every time I caught a fish and the Ex cooked it up - that is what I had served to me. I am not even sure if it was on purpose or not...
Peace~
No I don’t
So I didn't seen an biochar... Meybe it is charcoal.
Same thing. If you cook with it, it's charcoal. If you put it in your garden, it's biochar.
same stuff.
@@ozarkswebdesign6366 Please do inocculate the char thoroughly before using it
in your garden. If you don't, you'll be robbing your soil from nutrients for years.
Plenty of instructions to be found on youtube for the inocculation process.
Peace.
Great demo but doesn’t all that combustion heat contribute to global warming. The only way it wouldn’t would be if you used it as a replacement for heat that you require and acquire from another source. So, if your aim is to reduce global warming, I’d think of how to use all this heat before I would start producing the biochar.
Global warming isn't about us running heaters on earth... It's about emitting gasses that retain heat within the atmosphere (ie. Greenhouse gasses)... Producing heat alone does not contribute to global warming.
@@addisondubay9999 sure it does! Every bit of heat we produce warms the atmosphere. Let’s say you decide to go camping. You are toasty in your sleeping bag, right? Why? Because, you are trapping your body heat in the bag. That’s why the air in the bag is warm too! If you add heat to the atmosphere, it will warm the same way! There are lots of ways to warm the atmosphere. Condensation of water for one. When water condenses from a gas it releases the energy that it absorbed when it evaporated and changed phase from a liquid to a gas. That’s why you feel cold when you get out of the swimming pool and why it feels warmer when it rains (and water vapor is condensing) and cooler the day after (when rain water that has wetted surfaces is evaporating). What about the urban heat Island effect? No greenhouse gases are being emitted yet it still contributes to global warming. We change forest to concrete. The sun heats the concrete and absorbs the solar energy. It then releases it in the form of heat to the atmosphere later that night, warming the atmosphere and contributing to global warming! It’s simple high school physics. It’s precisely because so many interrelated things contribute to global warming and global cooling of the atmosphere that climate change is such a complex science!
You should check out the other biochar videos. There are producers who are using the offgassing to run the oven, the excess heat heats greenhouses, there is a reburner for smoke which cleans the smoke, and they have a nearly zero net output. They are almost completely climate neutral.
I made mine in a wood stove that I was heating with anyway.
I won't burn wood to make it if I do not need the heat from the stove.
Best way to reduce any purported global warming is to cut the birth rate by 90%.
At least for 100 years.
Less people consume less and therefore emit less global warming things.
@@crazysquirrel9425 Finally someone with common sense. You must have watched the video " the exponential function " by Dr. Albert Bartlett by which with math he proves you can not have infinite growth whether it be the economy or by population.
Translate please
Better videos available tbh
Can you please spell out the brand name of the Rocket stove?
Anila stove.