Gary Jones over at Muck and Mystery has long been writing about the benefits of biochar, and how this form of charcoal has been part of the secret of the amazingly fertile terra pretas of the Amazon. Now he has a link to Phillip Small‘s biochar FAQ and wiki. Therein lies a slide show of what is described as "…easily the cleanest burning and highest yielding method we know of to make garden-sized batches of charcoal," Folke Gunther’s TLUD-fired retort. Forget the fancy terminology, this is a charcoal cooker made out of two steel drums that burns scrapwood and tree prunings to make garden-ready biochar. It’s the damnest piece of elegant low-tech I’ve seen in long time; it’s biochar for the masses.
Burning scrapwood and yard waste is frowned upon by the San Antonio Fire Department and Code Compliance. But, if I can use this doo-dad as a barbecue, hello biochar!
Update (28 May). Read Erich Knight’s comment, it’s full of great references. Jones hints that my biocharbecue might generate one hell of a lot of syngas:
I suspect that there is enough syngas to run a few grills and still
have plenty to keep pyrolysis going, especially in an insulated system.
The biochar fund has a unit that makes char and runs a turbine to
generate electricity. More geeky tinkers may monitor temperature and
throttle the gas supply as necessary to maintain optimums
I better get cracking on trying this thing out.
The Random Texan 
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