Charcoal kiln construction and features

Sat-04-2015

Construction of charcoal kilns

Depending on the method of charcoal making there are various types of charcoal kilns used throughout the world. Wherein brick and metal kilns are the most effective and give good yields of quality charcoal. There are many designs of brick and metal kilns and most of them give good results.

The kiln must comply with a lot of important requirements in order to be successful and widespread. Firstly, it must have simple construction and be strong as it is going to be used in the procedure of loading and unloading many times. Secondly, no rain, weather or other thermal stresses must have influence on its perfomance. Also the kiln construction must allow control of the entry of air and the construction should be light-weight in order to allow the process of carbonization to pass fairly easily etc.

Charcoal

Beehive brick kiln construction

There are many designs of brick kilns used nowadays, however, among them there are some types of kiln which have been improved recently as a result of systematic experiment. For instance, the Brazilian beehive kiln which burns part of the charged wood within the kiln to carbonize the remainder.

The kiln is widely used in Brazil and is very successful on the market. It has circular wall which is in contact with the air. A wooden pole of 2.50 m is attached onto the central pipe in a horizontal position, serves as a guide for the building of the walls. Kiln’s mortar is made from clay and charcoal fines. The first course of bricks has 18 openings for the air ports. Width of these openings is 0.10 m and height is 0.08 m. The kiln has chimneys as well. Their size is 0.12 m x 0.10 m. The kiln’s wall has two openings for emergency use, which are placed in a vertical position above the two air inlet ports. Its size is 7 mm x 7 mm. Then 1 central opening for emergency use is located after a second layer of bricks, which consists of 5 courses of bricks; 2 openings are placed above the first ones. In general, each pair of stacks has 5 ports for emergency use. The kiln has 2 doors (1.00 m x 1.60 m). The vertical wall is 1.80 m height. The kiln has also the beam compass, which is placed on the pocket of the dome. The length of the compass is around 3.10 m. The triangle-shaped ignition opening is placed at the top of the dome.

Charcoal

Transportable metal kiln construction

Transportable metal kilns are widely used for charcoal production. The kiln, which has cylindrical shape, originated in Europe in the 1930's and now are recognized as optimal in economy of construction and ease of operation. It is widely used in developing countries as it gives high efficiency and productivity for their situations.

Thus the kiln consists of the two main sections which have cylindrical shape. To support the top section and cover are used iron shelves of 50 mm, which are welded to the uppermost rims of the sections. It is very important to choose the right thickness and type of kiln’s metal. The lower kiln’s section is made from a steel sheet of 3 mm and the upper section and cover should be manufactured from no less than 2 mm steel sheets. The kiln includes 8 air inlet/outlet channels, which are placed around the base. However, the best designs are supported on the open based channels. In this case the soil absorbs most of the tar. Each chimney has a small section that allows the smoke to enter from the channel. In order to reinforce the metal kilns it is recommended to weld a strip of iron to the lower rim of the base section. Also it is better if the kiln is lit at the top of the cover. It should be added that some transportable metal kilns have hinged flaps and metal caps which could be used to cut off the air supply to the kiln on sealing.

So there can be many varieties within each type of kilns used throughout the world. Each of kilns has its own construction and features. Among brick kilns beehive brick kiln is one of the most common types. When it is properly constructed and operated the kiln is recognized as one of the best methods of charcoal production. Transportable metal kilns are very popular in the developing countries because of its easy transporting and operating and these kilns give good results as well.

Source: http://ukrfuel.com/news-charcoal-kiln-construction-and-features-38.html

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