Design of a modified charcoal production kiln for thermal therapy and evaluation of the charcoal characteristics from this kiln

Abstract

A modified charcoal kiln was developed for both thermal therapy and charcoal production. The design of a modified kiln for thermal therapy focused on safety and cleanliness, plus the production of good quality charcoal. Two entrances in the kiln were designed for convenient charcoal production and thermal therapy. A barrier wall designed for noxious gases was installed between the adjoining charcoal kilns for safe thermal therapy. Additionally, a fine dust collector was installed to remove the fine dust generated during charcoal production. To verify the safety of the kiln, fine dust and harmful gases, such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and radon (Rn), were measured after the charring process. The quality of the charcoal produced in the thermal therapy kiln was also examined. To evaluate charcoal quality, some physical properties and results from a proximate analysis were evaluated using Korean standards. The measurements of harmful substances and fine dust in the modified charcoal kiln met the criterion of the Ministry of Environment Clean Air Conservation Act in Korea. In addition, there were no noticeable differences in the monthly charcoal characteristics prepared from the thermal therapy kiln, and the charcoal characteristics also met the reference values of the Korea Forest Service.

Physical and chemical characteristics of the bamboo culm and wood carbonized at low temperature

“…The calorific values were measured with a calorimeter (Oxygen Bomb Calorimeter 6400, Parr, USA) using 60 mesh carbonized powder (0.5 g). Before measuring the calorific value, the equipment was corrected using benzoic acid (6.321 cal/g) (Lee et al 2019). The measurements were performed three times for each sample.…”

“…Carbonized powder samples (1 g) were mixed with 100 mL of DI water and boiled for approximately 10 min. After cooling, the pH value was determined using a pH meter (PB-10, Germany) (Lee et al 2019). The measurements were performed three times for each sample.…”

Proximate analysis of bamboo culm and wood carbonized at low temperatures: A comparative study

“…Besides, charcoal derived from wood and bamboo has been used as fuel, fertilizer, humidity control, adsorbents, wastewater purification, and catalysts (Hoshi 2001;Asada et al 2002). In Korea, wood charcoal has long been used as a traditional medical treatment (Lee et al 2019).…”