Charcoal Production in a Continuous Operation Retort. Experimental Data Processing

The charcoal industry has recently regained the spotlight along with other renewable resources, not from its previous ill repute as a cause of deforestation but as one of the tools for climate change mitigation. In this paper a study with an experimental evaluation of a charcoal production technology is carried out in an industrial facility. The investigated technology is a state-of-the-art continuous operation automated retort which is comprised of a monitoring system continuously registering process characteristic temperatures. The raw material, biomass, passes through three different stages in the retort - biomass heating and drying, biomass carbonization, and charcoal cooling. These process sections are described and analyzed according to the relevant temperatures. The obtained data is processed using Statgraphics Centurion Statistical data analysis tool. This study draws attention to the importance of a scientific approach to charcoal production with optimized process parameters directing the charcoal industry towards the increase of production sustainability.