How to make your own wood vinegar with a Cookswell Kiln

How to make your own free wood vinegar and Stockholm tar with the Cookswell Smoke Trap and a Kinyanjui Kiln. (Avalible from http://cookswell.co.ke/ecommerce/category/kilns)


What is wood vinegar?
Recovery of chemicals from the vapours given off when hardwood is converted to charcoal was once a flourishing industry. However, as soon as the heavily subsidized petrochemical industry developed, wood as a source of methanol, acetic acid, specialty tars and preservatives became uneconomic. But with the advent of higher prices for organic food and organic living, wood vinegar is making a vigorous globally resurgence.


Wherever charcoal is made the possibility of recovering by-products should be discussed.


By adding a simple metal pipe to a large 180$ Cookswell drum kiln - you can collect appx. 1-2 liters of wood vinegar per 9 hour cycle while producing appx. 20-30kgs of lumpwood charcoal or biochar from appx.  100kgs of air dried wood.




Wood vinegar is another name for pyroligneous acid and is the crude condensate of smoke that consists mainly of water.

The non-water component consists of wood tars, both water soluble and insoluble, acetic acid, methanol, acetone and other complex chemicals in small amounts. When left to stand, the pyroligneous acid separates into two layers comprising the water insoluble tar and a watery layer containing the remaining chemicals aka 'smoke water' inclduing karrikins.




Simple decant it into glass bottles and let the tars settle for 12 weeks or so.



Physicochemistry and Utilization of Wood Vinegar from Carbonization of Tropical Biomass Waste
Y. Theapparat, A. Chandumpai, D. Faroongsarng
Published 1 August 2018
Tropical Forests - New Edition
Pyroligneous acid also called wood vinegar is an aqueous liquid produced from pyrolysis of lignocellulose waste and biomass. In general, the pyrolysis types are classified base on heating rate mainly either fast or slow pyrolysis. The characteristic and properties of wood vinegar are primarily influenced by the type of carbonaceous feedstocks as well as the production techniques. Wood vinegar is a complex mixture of polar and non-polar chemicals with various molecular weights and compositions. Its major constituent is water (80–90%). Some physical properties; such as pH, specific gravity, dissolved tar content are, respectively, within the range of 2–4, 1.005–1.016 g/mL, 0.23–0.89% wt, and color, odor and transparency have been reported.

In addition, the degree of Brix was ranged between 1.7 and 6.6. Besides water, the chemical compositions of wood vinegars consisted of acetic acid with the largest component (30.45–70.60 mg.mL ). A high number of phenol derivatives have been found and those in higher concentrations were 4-propyl-2-methoxyphenol (5–11 mg.mL ) followed by 2-methylphenol (2–4 mg.mL ). Wood vinegar has been regarded as a natural product, which claimed to be capable in several fields of application. In agriculture, wood vinegar has been used in vegetable cropping in order to combat disease, pest control, improve growth and fruit quality, seed germination accelerator as well as herbicide. 

In pharmaceutical and medical applications, it is used for the preparation of detoxification pad while in veterinary and animal production, incorporation of the wood vinegar in feed could promote acidity in large intestine to inhibit growth of enteropathogenic microbes. In food processing, wood vinegar has a characteristic smoke flavor, and also exhibits microbial growth inhibition. In addition, several investigators reported that bio-oil and wood vinegar obtained from fast pyrolysis and carbonization showed a high potential on organic wood preservative. In summary, the wood vinegar prepared from the tropical wood and/or biomass waste is widely beneficial. 

The chapter attempts to provide essential knowledge relevant to physicochemical characteristics of wood vinegar and its applications. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited


Specific Farm Uses for Wood Vinegar:

Evaluation the vegetative growth of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) as affected by pyroligneous
acids produced from different wood species are very much important. Pyroligneous acid was prepared by using the wood species of Gliricidia sepium, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Acacia leucopholea, and Azadirachta indica. Different concentrations (0%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, and 1.0%) of the Pyroligneous acid were applied as a foliar spray (50ml/plant) with one-week intervals when the plant is having 4-5 leaves per each plant. Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) used as the test plant for the experiment. A pot experiment was laid out in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with twenty treatment combinations and four replications. Treatments were applied four times with one-week interval. Numbers of leaves, plant height, stem girth, number of branches was collected as the growth parameters.

Data were collected one week after the application of each treatment. Results revealed that, applicationof 1% pyroligneous acid for Solanum melongena plant has significantly increased 20% of the mean number of leaves, 20% of the mean plant height, 10% of stem girth, 40% of number of branches when compared to the control(0%). Among the Pyroligneous acid prepared from different species 1% concentration of the acid prepared from Gliricidia sepium acids showed the significantly highest number of branches when compared with other treatments.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350386301_Effects_of_pyroligneous_acids_wood_vinegar_produced_from_different_wood_species_on_vegetative_growth_of_eggplant_Solanum_melongena_L


The Appropriate Technology Association of Thailand recommends the following wood vinegar/water solution rates for various farm uses:


• Repel nematodes – Tomatoes, 1:500 (apply to the base of plants); strawberries, 1:200 (apply to the base of plants); and black pepper vines, 1:1500 (apply in place of water).

• Repel insect pests – Cabbage and Chinese cabbage, 1:1500 (apply in place of water); corn 1:300 (spray onto leaves).

• Control of fungal diseases – Tomato and cucumber, 1:200 (spray onto leaves).

• Control of root rot – Tomato and cucumber, 1:200 (apply to the base of plants).

• Reduce incidence of chili pepper flowers aborting – 1:300 (spray onto leaves).

• Improve flavor of sweet fruits and stimulate development of crops. Mix solution rates of 1:500 to 1:1000. Wood vinegar prevents excessive nitrogen levels, improves plant metabolism and contributes to higher fruit sugar levels.

• Stimulate compost production. A solution rate of 1:100 will help increase the biological activity of various beneficial microbes and can decrease composting times.

• Combat bad odor. A wood vinegar solution of 1:50 will diminish the production of odor-causing ammonia in animal pens.
• Supplement for livestock feed. Mixed with livestock feed at rates of between 1:200 and 1:300, wood vinegar can adjust bacterial levels in the animal digestive tract which improve the absorption of nutrients from feed.

• Enrich garden soil. Use a strong solution of 1:30 to apply to the garden soil surface at a rate of 6 liters of solution per 1m² to enrich the soil prior to planting crops. To control soil-based plant pathogens, use an even stronger rate of application.



A 2 hour cooling phase of the kiln before extracting the lumpwood charcoal


Various feedstocks provide various grades and compositions of wood vinegar and charcoal



Wood vinegar and charcoal production during de-bushing for pasture improvement. Another by product is Stockholm tar for the cattle and horses hooves.


Or even make biochar and vinegar from any feedstock including green house waste from flower farms.

Or off cuts from woodlots


Or invasive species like lantana camera and prosopis juliflora 






Or you can use maize cobs


Or even bamboo!



And with many thanks to www.seedballskenya.com - we are also including a packet of indigenous acacia xanthopholea, sesbania sesban and kirkii tree seeds so you can grow a life time supply of free woodfuel, wood vinegar, biochar and tar.





For more information about wood vinegar and wood vinegar suppliers in Africa, please see these links below:

https://www.efk.co.ke/product/croton-vinegar/ (Kenya)


https://www.slideshare.net/HenryAbraham4/web-waoc-presentation-on-organic-farming-aid-wood-vinegar (Ghana)


And for further reading:

http://tom-yoshimoto.com/a12.pdf

http://www.pyroligneousacid.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Wood-vinegar-a-by-product-from-rural-charcoal-kilns-and-its-role-in-plant-protection.pdf

http://www.academia.edu/13417330/Impacts_of_Pyroligneous_Acid_to_Biological_and_Chemical_Properties_of_Depleted_Soil_in_Bohol_Philippines

http://gardenprofessors.com/smoke-em-if-youve-got-em/

http://paleomagazine.com/is-liquid-smoke-paleo




7 comments:

  1. Teddy Kinyanjui10.1.17

    Some more links here below:

    ''Students from the RMUTL Pitsanuloke campus developed a charcoal kiln in order to produce charcoal from small fallen branches of nearby trees. During the process of making charcoal, the kiln was designed to produce wood vinegar as a by-product. Use of wood vinegar is becoming popular with some Thai farmers who make use of this cheap source of organic liquid as a plant protection substrate. The experiment examined wood vinegar, produced by the student-designed kiln, as a fungicide, bactericide and as either laying or hatching inhibitor of cowpea weevil. The results suggest that wood vinegar is a promising solution in plant protection, showing good potential for inhibition of pathogenic-fungi and bacterial growth. It was found that cleaning wood vinegar by sedimentation or centrifugation is necessary. Sedimentation of wood vinegar for 3 months resulted in similar characteristics to commercial products. Furthermore, centrifuged wood vinegar could prevent egg laying and penetrated well into the seed of cowpea weevil. These results indicated that people in rural communities could easily build or modify their own charcoal kilns in order to produce wood vinegar for use as an organic method of plant protection for their farms.'' https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266409813_Wood_vinegar_by-product_from_rural_charcoal_kiln_and_its_role_in_plant_protection

    ReplyDelete
  2. Teddy Kinyanjui10.1.17

    And this from http://www.warrencc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/CharcoalVinegar-with-pictures.pdf

    ''Until recently, charcoal and wood vinegar have been used
    principally in areas other than agriculture. Charcoal has
    been used as a fuel, of course, as well as in sewage treatment
    and metal polishing. Wood vinegar has been used in a
    variety of ways, including as an ingredient in medicines, an
    additive to animal feeds, a deodoriser, a mordant in the
    dyeing process, a facilitator in the fermentation process, a
    filter in sewage treatment and a raw material in various
    other industries.
    However, recently farmers and agricultural researchers
    have been looking into the use of charcoal and wood vinegar
    as alternatives to chemicals in improving crop yields and
    controlling pests. According to recent research and field
    trials, the following are some of the benefits of using wood vinegar in agriculture.

    Benefits of wood vinegar
    Wood vinegar has a variety of beneficial effects
    stemming from the fact that it is made up of a variety of
    minerals, compounds and acids. Researchers have
    found that wood vinegar consists of more than 200
    different ingredients. Tables 1 and 2 show the main
    ingredients found in raw and refined wood vinegar.
    The most common component in wood vinegar, except
    for water, is acetic acid, which accounts for 3 to 7% of
    the total ingredients and 50-70% of the organic matter.
    In addition to acetic acid and other organic vinegars,
    raw wood vinegar also consists of roughly 5% phenols
    and several percents of various types of alcohol
    including methanol and ethanol.
    Researchers have found that the beneficial effects of
    wood vinegar in agricultural applications include:
    1. Spraying diluted wood vinegar on plant leaves
    increases their vitality and improves crop quality.
    2. Spraying also helps control harmful insects and
    some kinds of plant diseases.
    3. Wood vinegar and agricultural chemicals are
    complementary. The efficacy of using them together
    is greater than using either one alone.
    4. If wood vinegar is applied to the soil or mixed into it
    in high concentrations, it inhibits eelworms and soil
    diseases. In low concentrations or while it is in th
    process of being broken down in the soil it increases
    the quantity of useful microbes.
    5. Wood vinegar helps plants develop stronger roots.
    6. Mixing wood vinegar with manure reduces odours
    and facilitates composting.
    Wood vinegar has a variety of other benefits. For example, if
    it is mixed with animal feed, it improves the meat quality.
    Table 1 lists some specific uses of wood vinegar in
    combating blight and insects.
    How wood vinegar is formed
    In order to better understand the components of wood
    vinegar ad how it works, it may be helpful to know how it is
    formed. The main ingredients in wood are the fibres
    cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin (Figure 3). In addition
    there are small quantities of compounds such as tannin.
    When these compounds are pyrolysed, ie in an air-tight
    environment, new compounds are formed. The types of
    compounds formed depends on the temperature of the fire.
    During the wood carbonization process, cellulose first
    pyrolyses at about 275 degrees centigrade. Later, lignin
    pyrolysis begins at 375 degrees, becoming most intense at
    400 degrees (Figure 4). (The same type of process occurs
    when compost is made from straw where decomposition by
    microbes first occurs in the cellulose and later in the harder
    lignin).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous25.1.17

    Hi

    My name is Felicity from South Africa, I am more interested in a charcoal manufacturing kiln tha can produce approximately 1000 5kg bags a day. How much will that costs, & what will be the levels of airpollution compared Kyoto standards of poluution, if they are higher, how can they be mitigated.

    ReplyDelete
  4. pic-a-day Kenya24.1.19

    What are the uses of the tar & what is the proportion of tar and wood vinegar upon full separation?

    ReplyDelete
  5. David Luganda Nsiyonna 28.8.21

    Am in Uganda kindly provide us with training on technology of making charcoal

    ReplyDelete
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  7. saranmobik2.8.22

    Thanks for this information as I want to buy American Made Wood Chests online, keep sharing such information.
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