RE: [Biochar] Energy utilization from process

    Since I am the one who designed and built the retort in the Peter Hirst/New England Biochar video, I feel that I must defend that design.  First of all, it is
not a TLUD.  It is a retort.  I don’t claim to have invented the barrel in a barrel retort, but that’s what you are looking at.  I used that retort for years with great success and still have it here in working order even though it has been outside
since 2008 or before, has been burned hundreds of times, and has no burned out bottom.

     A TLUD is a gasifier that was designed to make heat, and in skilled hands can very well make biochar as well.  The retort is designed to make biochar and can make usable heat as well if desired but it was
designed to make biochar.  The beauty of that retort design is that it can be loaded and left alone to do it’s work, and when it’s done, it puts itself out and leaves you with an inner can full of perfect biochar.  If you load a TLUD and leave it alone
you will end up with a small amount of ash.   

    I take ecception with your analysis that the annular fire only heats the top.  As it burns down the annular space, the outside fuel heats the whole inner can on a slow, steady, pace thus producing gasses that come out under the inside
can and mix with the primary air before they make their way up through the burning embers in the annular space.  In this way they contribute perfectly to the continued heating of the inner chamber.  Since oxygen will always burn the gasses of the volatiles
first, the embers that are trapped will stay there until all the gasses in the inside chamber are exhasted.  Then the annular space fuel will finish combusting.  Therefore the whole process becomes self regulating.  That is why once I pack the unit and start
the fire, I can walk away and come back tomorrow.  At that point, I unload the biochar, reload with wood, light it, and go do something else.  Again, it needs to be in the hands of a skilled operator, but done right it becomes completely automatic even without
a computer, or even a fan to run it.  Retorts also have the great advantage over the TLUD when it comes to scaling up.  

   There are dozens of ways to make biochar.  The best means of doing so depends on many factors including how much time you have to devote to the process.  The retort (in many different sizes and shapes) has worked for me for years because
I don’t have the time to watch the machine work.  I in no way want to make it sound like TLUDs are bad by comparison.  I and my company make and sell lots of TLUDs also for making biochar and heat.  They aren’t bad, just different.  In my humble opinion, the
most important factor is the education of the person using whatever system is being used.  

    Paul, I aplaud your efforts and work in the world of biochar, especially the huge number of people that you have helped around the world in disadvantaged places.  You deserve a biochar trophy, I think that you will receive a great reward
in the next life.  I love to see all your designs being shared with so many who can make use of them.  I don’t want to turn this into anything more than a discussion, but I felt it necessary to correct your correction.

Bob Wells

On Tue, Apr 5, 2022 at 2:12 PM Luis Albanes <albanesmolina@gmail.com> wrote: