How to make charcoal work in a practical way and create CHP

As someone that makes charcoal I can say that its time consuming and requires some real effort. So much so that I would usually dismiss it as a fuel source because I know people are just too unmotivated to do it. And if nobody will do it, then whats the point.

That being said. Here is my idea on how to make a practical charcoal setup. First understand that 3/4 of your weight is being lost to heat and smoke. So for starters we need:

- A device that will make the charcoal
- A way to capture the escaping heat to heat a home or shop
- A way to remove the charcoal
- A way to gasify the charcoal to make energy

The device to make the charcoal should be a stratified gasifier. The open top is easy to load and they are good at making char. Its what I currently use. It uses less wood than the barrel method if you do it right.

Then you need to capture the heat by combusting the tarry escaping gas and getting that heat into your home. The heat exchanger could be the fireplace or you can use hot water. Vent smoke as normal.

When I make charcoal I have to wait for it to cool and then dig it out by hand. It sucks. To remove it effectively you need an auger in the pyrolysis zone. The char will be moved over to an updraft gasifier or to a catch bin to be used later.

The gasifier should be an updraft design that wont plug with char fines from the random biomass that will be put in the stratified initially.

A setup of this nature would allow you to get long run times for heat, use more varied biomass and deliver a high quality charcoal fuel with little waste. Biochar is also a product worth pursuing if you can make it in quantity.

The challenge is the blower motor used to create the suction and a tight sealing auger. But in my opinion this is a user friendly way to create charcoal and heat using the junky fuel most people assume will run effortlessly in an Imbert.