Stacking Bio-Char Resources

This forum has offered tremendous information on creating biochar as well as ideas to stack different functions. My personal favorite is using the burn-cycle as a "log" within a traditional wood stove to also create heat for the home (seen here), as it works really well for my heating situation.

Recently, in studying historic and ancient methods of creating charcoal for cooking purposes, I ran across this video where the wood sap is extracted during pyrolysis, thus creating 2 resources at once: clean char and distilled sap that can be used for salves, pitch, resin, glue, weather-proofing, etc.  (It's what they used to seal boats, houses, waterproof-fabric, glue arrowheads onto arrows, make furniture, etc.)

Video 1 - Russian simple process and uses

Video 2 - Austevoll high-yield process

Video 3 - North Carolina process and uses

(Obviously this is done with "fatwood" and may be an option for those that have easy access to that type of wood.  Which is 95% of the wood in my area.)

What if biochar creation & tar extraction could be stacked with heating the home at the same time? Mini-extractor/retort of sorts for the wood stove or RHM? (I am not an inventor, but still interesting to think about! Perhaps a cast iron pot with a sturdy sieve leading to a pipe draining to another cast iron catchment? Or an upside-down borosilicate glass distiller where the liquid boils down to a catchment?)

Thoughts?  Ideas on how to make a mini-retort-extractor?

What are other stacked-functions to add to the biochar-creation process?

Destructive distillation of wood is of course being done, but it takes a certain scale, a constant process with constant inputs and constant heat, and a certain level of precision control to do this in a meaningful way. I'm not sure homebrew in a bathtub operation would really cut it, though it would certainly be fun to play with.

A while ago, we had a thread from one of the biochar gurus, pointing to a reasonable scale industrial-quality operation somewhere in the Canadian Rockies or thereabouts. I'll try to sniff out that thread; you will find it interesting.

This is a method I was thinking of.

Using sawmill slabs as a fuel source.
Melting the sap out of the fatwood to make rosin to seal clay pots.
Using the slabs and remainder of the fatwood to fire a small kiln.
The kiln would be in a greenhouse to provide heat to the greenhouse.
Ceramic pots would be fired in the greenhouse.
Once the fire was fully burned down to coals air would be choked off to allow everything to slowly cool overnight giving you biochar and heat all night.

One issue with this method is if you want to quench the coal with water or steam you would have to remove it from the kiln first or the shock of throwing water on it would crack the pots.

A person could make pots all summer and stack them to dry then fire them in the winter when heat is needed.  It could be a small cottage industry.

My method would
1. use a waste material
2. make resin
3. heat a greenhouse
4, fire pots
5. create charcoal


The charcoal can be added to soil, or it could be used for blacksmithing, or to run a gasafier or any other process charcoal is used for.

The same method could be done to heat a home or shed instead of a greenhouse.

There are companies that sell thermoelectric generators in the 100-200 watt range if you used that on the chimney of what ever you burn the bio char in you could also create electricity.

If you are off grid it would make sense to make a batch of bio char on cloudy days when you are in need of power.

Also solar power can be in short supply in the winter, so the heat of making biochar can also be put to use as well as the electricity.

I don't know anything about resin extraction, so can't comment on how that might be approached, but I really like the "stacking functions" of using the wood stove to heat the greenhouse, fire the pots, and produce biochar. The thermoelectric  generator hooked to a battery might power some LED's for light to work by.

In case you missed it, there's a good thread on here about different ways to make biochar in the wood stove: https://permies.com/t/44894/Containers-making-biochar-wood-burning

Here is a small scale commercial biochar refinery doing what the OP is talking about, on a family farm, and selling the various products of distillation.

https://www.therockymountaingoat.com/2019/06/mcbrides-secret-refinery-biochar-plant/

Pics of the operation (pretty cool):  https://www.bcbiocarbon.com/work-gallery

Mike Farmer wrote: In case you missed it, there's a good thread on here about different ways to make biochar in the wood stove: https://permies.com/t/44894/Containers-making-biochar-wood-burning

Thanks Mike! Yes, that was actually the thread that introduced me to stacking two functions (Mark Brunnr's post on Edible Acres' video of making biochar while heating the home). Great info!  
By the way, those steel "hotel pans" (steam pans/chaffers/foodwarmers) work well to release the gases, and they are ~80% off right now on LionsDeal! It's helpful that they have multiple sizes so one can select a size that fits in their stove.  It also works perfectly for using smaller alternate mediums, like pine needles, avocado pits, etc.  

Stacking charcal making with space heating is one of my man obsessions.
Distilling tars/oils/resins/vinegar  from wood is very doable at the homestead scale.
I'd be  concerned that some of the condensates wll be toxic.

Here's a video of a technique that produces high quality charcoal and condensate:
https://youtu.be/fTOHBrFuh68?si=1ZEUuKoUja4tPCPI

This method heats the charcoal feedstock directly with the combustion gasses of the wood fire

Like most of the methods we see, the wood fire that provides the heat for the pyrolysis is relatively dirty and inefficient.

Firing retort/still with a tlud,rocket stove or even a properly managed modern conventional woodstove could be an improvement.
I've favored using a tlud, despite the fuel prep needed ,because they can burn for a long time without tending,  and they are dead simple to make.
A recent thread made me realize that a charcoal making retort heated by a charcoal fire would do the same, with less labor, and the same equipment.

William Bronson wrote:Stacking charcal making with space heating is one of my man obsessions.
Distilling tars/oils/resins/vinegar  from wood is very doable at the homestead scale.
I'd be  concerned that some of the condensates wll be toxic.

Here's a video of a technique that produces high quality charcoal and condensate:
https://youtu.be/fTOHBrFuh68?si=1ZEUuKoUja4tPCPI

This method heats the charcoal feedstock directly with the combustion gasses of the wood fire

Like most of the methods we see, the wood fire that provides the heat for the pyrolysis is relatively dirty and inefficient.

Firing retort/still with a tlud,rocket stove or even a properly managed modern conventional woodstove could be an improvement.
I've favored using a tlud, despite the fuel prep needed ,because they can burn for a long time without tending,  and they are dead simple to make.
A recent thread made me realize that a charcoal making retort heated by a charcoal fire would do the same, with less labor, and the same equipment.

That is exactly what I am doing to make my wood vinegar, I fire my retort with a 20 liter TLUD gasifier using stove pellets for maximum energy density and fire duration.