Our intentions
We wish that we humans could manage to live in harmony with nature and perhaps this guide can contribute in a small way to this. We only have one planet and it would make sense to protect it instead of exploiting it more and more. We also wish that people would stop exploiting other people, and this guide can also make a small contribution to human self-sufficiency. Therefore, this manual serves two main purposes.
1.) Our wish is that you cook, produce vegetable charcoal or barbecue charcoal in an environmentally friendly way.
2.) We would like you to cook, produce charcoal or grill effectively with little wood, especially in poorer countries where wood is precious.
Its environmental friendliness
With pyrolysis you can cook in an environmentally friendly way and you get high-quality barbecue or vegetable charcoal as a waste product. During the conversion process from wood to charcoal, about half of the CO2 stored in the wood is released again. If you want to use the charcoal for barbecuing, the CO2 balance is neutral. However, if you want to use the charcoal as plant fertiliser, the CO2 balance is even negative. Negative is positive in this case, because half of the CO2 contained in the wood is still in the coal and, according to studies, will remain stored there for at least the next 5,000 years. You can use the charcoal to produce Terra Preta
Pyrolysis Cooker – Its efficiency
With the El Carbonero M cooker you can cook, for example, noodles or rice in 20 min with only 1 kg of wood. With an open fire, you would need significantly more wood. The El Carbonero L cooker with its capacity of 3.5 kg of wood provides a cooking time of at least 45 min.
What is inside? – Table of Contents
1. Our intentions
2. What are the advantages of pyrolysis?
2.1. Its environmental friendliness
2.2. Its efficiency
3. Usability of the charcoal produced for Terra Preta
4. What is pyrolysis?
5. How wood becomes charcoal
6. What must be observed during pyrolysis?
7. Introductory note to the construction of the El Carbonero cookers
8. How to build an El Carbonero M
8.1. Preparation and how to operate the El Carbonero M
9. How to build an El Carbonero L
9.1. Preparation and how to operate the El Carbonero L
10. How to build an El Carbonero XL