[Stoves] Crispin's kiln-was Traditional Charcoal Making

[Peter Singfield]

At 03:07 PM 7/7/2007 -0700, Tom M wrote:
>Does it make sense to make charcoal at the same time as you are firing the
>kiln? A 343 kW (1.2 MMBtuh) design that does not require fuel preparation
>could be used to fire a 24 ft3 kiln. Char could be removed manually
>periodically. That's a good design challenge.
>
>Tom    

Wow Tom -- a wonderful report!! And I can only agree with your take on the
situation!!

Reaching and maintaining Cone 10 is the problem -- but certainly -- woody
biomass does that better than propane!!

I had no time to review your refs to wood fired kilns -- but I can easily
assume that with proper design -- simple combustion of woody biomass should
be able to achieve cone 10 conditions.

Insulation -- and minimum of draft -- 

The other alternative fuel that does have sufficient combustion
temperatures to smelt cast iron is used engine oil.

If one has a source of sufficient quantities -- the price is usually very low.

Excellent commercial burners are available -- these urls from my archives:

Shenandoah Waste Oil Burner

http://www.usedoilheaters.com/WhyBurnWasteOil.html

REZNOR Waste Oil Heaters

http://www.qsequipment.com/reznor/rezgate.html

Clean Burn 

http://www.cleanburn.com/

Turbo Burn 

http://www.turboburn.com/index.shtml

Even a small unit should be able to keep the temps up to cone ten -- just
incase wood firing alone can't reach there.

Or -- just add used oil at the proper point to any woody biomass combustion
---

Another flame temperature booster -- chunks of used car tires -- 

And if coal is available ---

Peter/Belize