Ron, I have been able to make very good char, as tested by Hugh McLaughlin, from grass tablets. These have a diameter of about 1.5 inches and I break them into wafers about 1/2 CM thick. My first batch of grass tablet biochar was actually made by Paul Anderson in one of his TLUDs.
Please see this post from Nov. 2009: http://www.greaterdemocracy.org/archives/931 I also find that quenching the biochar at the end of the pyrolysis is not critical at all. If I leave one of my iCans overnight, I lose less than half the charcoal. My guess is that this is the result of tuning the iCan for the least amount of primary air. I have noted that when the pyrolysis is over, the bed of charcoal emits "smoke". My goal is for zero smoke, but find that I can still get god biochar if the smoke is essentially gone in less than two minutes. My practice is to only quench after the smoke has essentially finished f within in about 3 minutes after the pyrolysis flames extinguish themselves. Cheers, Jock Jock Gill P.O. Box 3 Peacham, VT 05862 Carbon Negative Solutions (G) (802) 503-1258 On Dec 5, 2010, at 1:42 AM, [email protected] wrote: > > Richard and 2 lists: > > Thanks for the complete response. I conclude that pellets and briquettes are > possibly able to act similarly in char-making stoves, but briquettes look > better in traditional stoves. Apparently not much comparative work done yet > for advantages of production of one vs the other.
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