using a charcoal retort to heat log shed?

[flatyre]

Hey folks have a spare bit of ground next to the shed where I stack my logs and was thinking of using it for a simple charcoal retort for getting shot of brash. Has anyone used a retort or similar external heat source to aid wood drying?

[agg221]

If you want to send me your email address, I can give you some details of a current project we are working on with the Exeter retort. It is more complex than you would want to go, but the basic data should be relevant.

 

Alec

[Woodworks]

Need to have a pretty well controlled one. This was ours on a burn last year. Would not want anything flammable remotely close when it's going full chat.

[richy_B]

If you want to send me your email address, I can give you some details of a current project we are working on with the Exeter retort. It is more complex than you would want to go, but the basic data should be relevant.

 

Alec

When I had my exeter I had planned something like this. I thought about removing the outer skin and insulation, a few wraps of copper tubing and then skin and insulation back on. Then run the piping to a large tank with a hot water pump in line. Essential you have a thermal accumulator tank you could then run a heating system from. Never got any further than thinking about it though!

[casto]

Need to have a pretty well controlled one. This was ours on a burn last year. Would not want anything flammable remotely close when it's going full chat.

 

Funny enough I've just been watching the video of yours working! (I'd never hear of a charcoal retort till I just Google it and found videos on YouTube)

 

I've been looking at kiln drying timber and always wanted to try charcoal. Looks like I've found my way to do both

[agg221]

When I had my exeter I had planned something like this. I thought about removing the outer skin and insulation, a few wraps of copper tubing and then skin and insulation back on. Then run the piping to a large tank with a hot water pump in line. Essential you have a thermal accumulator tank you could then run a heating system from. Never got any further than thinking about it though!

 

That should work, with a thermostatic valve (e.g. vehicle radiator system) to stop it from running too hot or cold.

 

We have been looking at extracting the huge amount of extra energy available during a charcoal burn. The main interest is in using the surplus gas to generate electricity (there is enough to run a 10kW genset for days!) but we have also looked at the surplus thermal energy and run a paper exercise on how much there is, how heat generation profiles with time and considered what you might do with it.

 

Alec

[richy_B]

The beauty I suppose would be that you could do both. Excess heat from the kiln casing, pipe off the a lot of the gases for other uses. I did think you could run copper heating elements up the chimney as well to get more heat. The chimney used to glow as the sun went down.

 

Regrettably I couldn't make any of that work in London due to obvious urban constraints.

[agg221]

Regrettably I couldn't make any of that work in London due to obvious urban constraints.

 

I bet if you had sold it as a trendy new cooking method you could have made a fortune by running a combined charcoal retort/restaurant business!

 

Alec

[Woodworks]

Funny enough I've just been watching the video of yours working! (I'd never hear of a charcoal retort till I just Google it and found videos on YouTube)

 

I've been looking at kiln drying timber and always wanted to try charcoal. Looks like I've found my way to do both

 

Glad it might help

 

Not found it remotely profitable but great fun

[openspaceman]

Hey folks have a spare bit of ground next to the shed where I stack my logs and was thinking of using it for a simple charcoal retort for getting shot of brash. Has anyone used a retort or similar external heat source to aid wood drying?

 

 

It makes so much sense to get some value out of the flare, up around 70% of the calorific value in the wood can end up there.

 

Do you intend for the brash to be the initial support fuel or for it to make into char?

 

The quickest char volume I ever made was with 3 month old oak lop and top, after the cordwood and timber was gone, into a ring kiln using the pit method (now referred to as "flame curtain" by biochar makers). The heat from this could be entrained into a gas:gas heat exchanger and an induced draught fan, using a thermostatic air bleed to keep the temperature low enough.

 

You do need dry wood to sensibly make charcoal because water slows everything down, it takes far longer to dry wood than it takes to pyrolyse it.

 

What area are you?