WHAT IS A
BEST BIOCHAR KILN?
The Best BioChar Garden Kiln is based on the Japanese cone kiln.
This 30.5″ wide by 11″ deep kiln, made of sturdy 20 gauge steel, is by far the easiest, affordable, and fastest way to make biochar at home. You can use tree prunings, sticks, wood scraps, corn stalks, and other biomass “waste” that is generated around the home and garden.
Why burn your garden “waste” in a burnpile when in about an hour or less you can create high quality biochar for your garden?!
HOW IT WORKS
How it works: The angled sides of the cone control the combustion process by only allowing oxygen to the top layer where the flame is.
The area below the flame is oxygen starved but remains hot due to the flame above heating it like an oven.
This hot area is the pyrolysis zone where the biochar is made.
The heat causes flammable gasses to evolve from the biomass, which rise to the top where they are burned in the flame zone.
When no more gasses evolve (i.e. no more visible flame), the process is complete, and it is doused with water.
BENEFITS
A single gram of biochar has approximately 500 or more square meters of surface area!
This large area provides a home for beneficial microbes and fungi, enhancing soil fertility.
The biochar also attracts and holds moisture, improving the drought tolerance of crops.
It attracts fertilizers such as phosphorous and nitrogen and helps prevent its degradation into nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.
The biochar then releases this fertilizer later for use by the plant, reducing the amount of fertilizer required.