How to Convert Wood into Charcoal and Electricity is a step by step (with detailed illustrations) guide to building a masonry furnace to convert wood into charcoal.
Just his alone is worth the price of the book, however, Mr. Buxton then shows how to extract, filter, and condense the woodgas byproduct and use it to run an internal combustion engine to produce electricity.
This is a very well written and easy to understand manual. Do not let the small size fool you, this is great material and well worth the read.
This book is something that I have read and reread dozens of times. I plan on making a decent sized set up to make charcoal in the future. Charcoal is needed for my foundry so I can melt aluminum, and it will also be needed when I finally build my blacksmith shop area at the land.
Besides that, I can have some bragging rights (not that most people would brag on this), but I would love to be able to say I am eatting BBQ from a pig I raised and butchered, on a grill I built, using charcoal I made.
This is one particular project that is very high on my list of projects.
Wood may grow on trees, but it’s still expensive, especially for fine woodworkers in the market for high-quality lumber.