tomandjj (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

That guy at the end is Santa. Because the worlds coal has become to expensive he has had to make charcoal to put in naughty children's stockings instead.

ioherbalalchemy (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

um, you could heat your shop with this retort method for sure. However I don't think that injecting steam into the hot coals would make much hydrogen... Also storing hydrogen in a bag would not be successful for long since hydrogen molecules pretty much go through most materials. Also to get the charcoal white hot you would need to blow air on it constantly, it burns orange just on it's own.good luck, though, sounds cool.

cheaphardwarez (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

I have often wanted to make a stove to heat my shop with that made charcoal at the same time and then use the charcoal to burn till its white hot then inject steam to make hydrogen and store the hydrogen gas in a large bag for burning in a burner at a later time.

ioherbalalchemy (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

Injecting air underneath caused the barrel to oxidize and burn, so that's where we are now - time to make a new container... I am probably going to weld a new one square from 1/4 or so steel.The argument I have against natural gas or propane is that I am trying to keep this process carbon "neutral" and not burn any fossil fuels... just my thing Once we rebuild the retort, we will do more effeciency experiments

HomeDistiller (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

i saw the new design and it looks better but it like to see how much you would get if you just burnt 300lBs of wood in the old barrel method (im asuming you mean 150lBs in the barrel and burning 150lBs under)also has you tryed injecting air into the burner underneath to get it to burn hotter and cleaner? you should get a quicker conversion that way.. or evan useing a natral gas burner underneath instead of wood?

ioherbalalchemy (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

sort of. I have improved the technique to the point that I can produce around 30 LB of charcoal by burning about the same amount of wood as fuel (the wood in the drum before conversion weighs around 150LBs or so depending on wood)

HomeDistiller (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

good idea but the amount of fuel you used to get it working would outwheigh the gain of this method i would have thought

Vernichtungslager666 (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

Where can i buy a bag of soft wood charcoal??? anyone please respond =D

willowsnap (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

What are those non-flammable panels you use on the sides? Asbestos?

dotchoo (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

yeah, i know now, thx :D