CHARCOAL RETORT MANUFACTURE AND SALES ........PRICE £17,500 (+17.5% vat)

Due to very high demand we now manufacture and sell retorts at very competitive prices. The retorts are omission friendly and provide excellent charcoal with high carbon content and minimal wastage.

By using the wood's natural gases to reheat the retorts the retorts offer significant advantages. The retorts systems offer a higher productivity and more efficient way of scaling up production than operating a larger number of small round kilns. Our retorts offer possibilities of more efficient use of raw materials. (i.e. 4 x1 ratio) is a normal for these retorts, (compared with the normal steel round kilns at 7 x 1 ratio)

The Retorts

The retorts are 6 ft depth x 11 ft wide x 7.5 ft high. There are 2 charge cylinders, each are 6ft long by 3ft 4 inches and together will give you roughly 250kg of charcoal per burn (depending on what wood you use).

The doors are made with 500mm of ceramic blanket sandwich in two plates of 4mm steel which help heat retention.

The gases exhaust on the doors. When the gases are exposed and rise they pass throough the vent in the door travel down in the fire box exhaust system this is made out from 8m s/steel tube with 4 exhaust ports which are pass though the fire bricks into the fire box then the gases reunite and rise up through the spaced fire bricks around the cylinders down to the rear vents and then retort again.

The entire inner part of the retort is lined with 500 mm of ceramic blanket which is important to keep the heat retorting around the cylinders.

OPERATION INSTRUCTIONS

Loading
Loading (charging) time for the retorts is approximately 45 mins (depending on how you stack the charge). We stack ours in an unorthodox manor. We stack the front of the kiln, then throw the wood at the back placing small at the bottom followed by medium at half way then large wood at the top.

Remember to keep the drains clear from the wood to avoid build up water from the wood (Such a build up will add to your burning time)

When all charges are full close the doors and making sure the top door vents are sealed with sand. Remember the charge must be air tight when the gases come in. When starting just leave the drain hole cover off. So when you start a burn you will see water & gases come though the bottom drain hole. Wait until the gases are dense then screw the drain hole cap on. Keep feeding the firebox, till the gases hit 300 degrees C to 38O degrees C (depending on what wood you are burning).

The Cooking Time
Cooking times of as little as 8 to 10 hours can be achieved by preburning. (Cooking times without preburning takes about 6 hours longer)

Reburning
Reburning is very simple. After loading the charge all you have to do is light as before, keeping it going till the wood menthol starts to come though leave it till the next day. (You could put charcoal fines in the firebox, this will keep the temperature this will slow burn over night in the morning just rack the firebox this will reunite and feed as normal. Once the gases are reducing this means that the cooking is over this will take time to learn.

Once the gases reduce you can either take the door vents caps off and wait till the temperatures drop to 350 degrees C and then take the vent at the rear out then leave it so it cools quicker to unload next day. (remember to replace the door vent caps, sand and seal to prevent air entering the charge) or you can just take the rear vent out and leave it.

UNLOADING
When the temperatures are around 40 to 45 degrees C it is safe to open the doors. Once open you will see how much the wood has reduced. If you see a few brown ends (wood that has not been cooked long ) you will know that next time you need to keep the temperatures more constant and which wood to put in for quicker burning (oak & hornbeam will take longer than ash or beech, birch will be the quickest wood to burn).