The Ecocarbex Process

We use a full production cycle of processing wood of various breeds into high-quality charcoal, starting from the acceptance and sorting of wood and ending with packing, packaging and shipping of finished products to consumers. Our charcoal production chain consists of the following departments and workshops: department of Wood Acceptance, Wood Preparation Department, Drying and Pyrolysis Workshop, Cooling and Stabilization of Charcoal Department, Charcoal Classification And Packing Department, Finished Goods Warehouse, and The Analytical Laboratory. You can learn more about the process below.

Charcoal Production

Department of Wood Acceptance

The delivery of wood in the form of roundwood, as well as various waste products of the woodworking industry, is carried out by motor transport on the road entering directly to the work site.

At the initial stage of the technological cycle, the duties of the working staff include checking the conformity of the wood material shipped by the supplier with those stated in the shipping documents. At the same time, the type (breed) of wood delivered to the site is determined. Unloading of wood is carried out separately with its storage by species.

Before feeding the raw wood raw materials to the Wood Preparation Department, the staff uses moisture meters to determine the average moisture content of the wood before further forced drying in furnaces. The device simultaneously measures the temperature of the wood, as well as its density.

This information is necessary for operators controlling the drying and pyrolysis processes to correctly select the operating mode of the furnace, namely, to redistribute, if necessary, heat flows inside the furnace between the pyrolysis and drying chambers during the pyrolysis process.

If the moisture content of the wood does not exceed 40% (wt.), the roundwood can be unloaded from the vehicle directly onto the trestle of the Wood Preparation Department. If the humidity exceeds more than 40%, the wood is unloaded at the site and stored for a certain time until it arrives at the Wood Preparation Unit. During this time, the wood is pre-dried in natural storage conditions.

Wood for production
Acceptance of wood.

Wood Processing Department

The original wood in the form of logs of a certain breed with a humidity of no more than 40% is unloaded onto an overpass, from where, using a chain gripping mechanism, the logs are fed to the conveyor of the TITAN 40/20 saw-cleaver manufactured by the company Uniforest (Slovenia).

All saw-cleave mechanisms are hydraulic. The operation of the machine is controlled by one operator using joysticks. Sawing logs is done with a circular saw.

Splitting of a sawn log is carried out with the help of a hydraulic pusher and a removable Knife device.

The machine allows not only to change the length of the saws, but also the number of pieces into which the sawn log is pricked. The latter, if necessary, is done by replacing the knife of the machine, which can be done directly on the site within a few minutes. Thus, it is possible in two dimensions to change the size of the pieces of wood loaded into the trolleys and, accordingly, the size of the charcoal produced, depending on the Customer’s requirements.

Sawn and chopped into pieces of the required size, the wood is fed through the wall through a special inclined conveyor to the Deep Drying and Pyrolysis Shop of the wood.

Processing wood.

Department Of Deep Drying And Pyrolysis Of Wood

The furnaces belong to the class of pyrolysis furnaces with a method of heat supply through the wall with afterburning of pyrolysis products. The technology used in the furnace is comparable to the retort method for producing charcoal.

Each furnace consists of 2 chambers that have connections: with a furnace, with an afterburner and a chimney. Each chamber has a loading door sealed when closed for loading/unloading trolleys. The chambers are equipped with exhaust ducts for the removal of gas released during pyrolysis into the combustion chamber and for the removal of drying products into the atmosphere. The furnace design provides for drying and pyrolysis modes. The furnace refers to products operated in a continuous mode, which ensures their maximum thermal efficiency.

The furnace works according to the principle: The prepared wood is loaded into the furnace trolleys, the trolleys are sealed, after which they are rolled along the rails into the furnace chambers. The primary heating of wood to the pyrolysis temperature is carried out by burning wood in the furnace. After heating the wood to the pyrolysis temperature, the pyrolysis gas products from the trolley located in the chamber with the “PYROLYSIS” mode enter the furnace furnace, where they are burned and form a coolant, which is used in the required amount for the chambers with the “PYROLYSIS” and “DRYING” mode. At the same time, the furnace goes into an autothermal mode of operation without using an external heat source and fuel. After the chambers, the gases enter the afterburner and then into the chimney.

The presence of an afterburner guarantees the ecological purity of the waste process gases. The operation of the furnaces is controlled using adjustable chamber flaps and an afterburner gate. The furnaces are equipped with automatic control and control systems for drying and pyrolysis of wood, as well as emergency light and sound alarms. The operating algorithm of the furnace is set by the operator from the control panel of the furnace, depending on the parameters of the raw materials used. To achieve high-quality indicators of coal in terms of carbon content, wood pyrolysis is carried out at temperatures of 400-450 degrees Celsius. Loading of raw materials into trolleys and their cooling takes place outside the furnace chamber.

Coal Cooling And Stabilization Department

Since coal after pyrolysis has a very developed highly porous surface, combustible volatile components of pyrolysis gases can be retained inside it for quite a long time, which is unsafe during subsequent storage and transportation of charcoal. The volatilization of combustible gases from coal occurs in a diffusion mode, which requires a certain time called “stabilization time”.

After the pyrolysis process is completed and the trolleys are unloaded from the furnace, they stand for some time in a closed state for primary cooling of coal in order to exclude its ignition when unloading from the trolleys in the Charcoal Stabilization Department.

After the initial cooling, the trolleys are delivered by a fork loader to the Charcoal Stabilization Department, where they are unloaded onto the concrete floor for its subsequent stabilization.

This method of stabilization is more effective than stabilization in any container, since it provides maximum blowing of charcoal by circulating air flows and the maximum rate of diffusion of residual combustible gases from coal into the atmosphere. The stabilized coal is fed to the horizontal conveyor belt and then by means of an inclined conveyor to the feeder hopper of the Classification, Packing and Packaging Department.

The feeder hopper is equipped with a vibrating grid for fractional classification of coal, this unloading device and a bucket conveyor for feeding coal to the Charcoal Packing and Packing department.

In addition, to exclude dusting into the atmosphere of the department, the main sources of dust are equipped with aspiration devices. Dusty gases are fed to the filter.

Coal cooling.
Charcoal
Feeder hopper

Charcoal Classification And Packing Department

After screening out the fine fraction of charcoal on the vibrating screens of the feeder hopper, the commodity fraction enters the hopper dispenser of the Charcoal Packing and Packaging department using a bucket conveyor. Depending on the Customer’s requirements, the charcoal is packed in various bags with different packaging.

The bag of the size and material (plastic, paper) selected by the Customer is fixed using an automatic clamping device on the neck of the dispenser hopper. Previously, the required bag loading weight was set on the control panel. The bag is loaded automatically, while the deviation of the specified weight load of the bag does not exceed 2%.

Periodically (at least 5 times per shift), the dispenser scales are checked using electronic floor scales. In case of deviations of more than 2%, an appropriate adjustment is introduced from the dispenser control panel.

After filling the bag, its loading side is sewn using a special sewing machine.

The finished products are stacked on pallets, wrapped with a plastic stretch film to fix the bags and minimize the carbon capture of moisture from the atmosphere. Pallets with charcoal are transported by a fork loader to the Finished Product Warehouse, from where the products are subsequently shipped to Customers.

Analytical Laboratory

To ensure constant quality control of the charcoal produced, Ecocarbex has a certified laboratory at its disposal. The laboratory analyzes all coal shipments discharged from pyrolysis furnaces on a daily basis. The quantity of coal unloaded from one trolley is taken as a batch. A chemist-analyst of the appropriate qualification on an ongoing basis analyzes the coal produced per day.

The analysis of charcoal is carried out according to the methodology corresponding to GOST 33625-2015 (CHARCOAL. Standard method of technical analysis).

The shipped products are supplied with appropriate Certificates of Charcoal Quality based on the results of its laboratory analysis.

The laboratory is located in a spacious room specially renovated for this purpose and is equipped with all the equipment necessary for the production of analyses, including: sieves, laboratory analytical scales, a drying oven with automatic maintenance of a set temperature, a temperature-controlled muffle furnace, desiccators, including vacuum ones, a charcoal preparation mill, all the necessary laboratory utensils. The entire range of analytical control is carried out in the laboratory, which allows a comprehensive assessment of the quality of the charcoal produced, including:

  • Content of volatile components
  • Free carbon content
  • Ash content
  • Humidity
Lab for coal analysis
Coal analysis lab
Charcoal analytical lab.

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