Making charcoal from bamboo is just as easy. There are two method, the first makes soft charcoal the breaks apart easily but you can make very large amounts, the second method is limited to the size of the vessel you use but makes a very hard type of charcoal.
For the first method all you need do is build up a large pile of bamboo.
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Then set fire to one end of it
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The fire will travel down the pile, once you have an area of glowing red coals it is time to put that part of the fire out
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But you want to leave part of the fire burning so it will continue to go down the rest of the pile of unburned bamboo and turn that into charcoal.
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This method can produce really large quantities and is only limited by the amount of bamboo you can pile up, it's the easiest and quickest method I've found so far but as mentioned before the biochar produce is a little soft. Not a problem if you are using it as a soil improver but less good for domestic applications.
Another method is to exclude oxygen during the burning process and for this we'll need a drum can (oil drum) that has been cleaned and had a ring of holes drilled in the bottom.
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The holes are to allow wood gas to escape during pyrolysis, the production of wood gas at this stage makes the process self sustaining once it gets up to temperature. With the drum can method you'll need something to enclose the drum can with, concrete blocks work well but anything non flammable and sturdy you have around will do.
So, raise the drum can up on a few blocks as you'll need to build a fire underneath it and surround the drum can with the concrete blocks or other material and pack it full of cut lengths of bamboo.
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And seal the drum can with a lid
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Then light your fire underneath the drum can.
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This will heat up the drum can until it reaches the correct temperature for pyrolysis to take off and by take off I mean it goes like a rocket. Once it hits the right temperature and wood gas is being produced inside the drum can that escapes through the holes drilled in the bottom and ignites when it hits the flames of the fire burning underneath. Giant flames shoot out the top of the enclosure like a rocket engine.
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At this point the fire below the drum can is no longer needed and the whole thing becomes self sustaining with the wood gas driving the process. Once production of wood gas ceases due to all the bamboo being turned to charcoal the fire goes out, at this point you can either pop the lid open (if you have a sturdy pair of gloves as obviously it's going to be pretty hot) and douse the inside with plenty of water or leave the whole lot to cool down but be aware that if some of the charcoal is burning inside the drum can it can burn the whole lot into ash so I prefer to put it out at this stage.
And here is a drum can full of nice hard charcoal.
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Out of the two methods the drum can one is the most spectacular method to watch.
