Charcoal

Description and Uses
Charcoal is not ash. Charcoal is when wood is burned without the presence of oxygen. It reduces the wood to carbon which can then be used as a fuel or chemical product.

Charcoal can be used for blacksmithing and filtering water. Other byproducts include ash (which can be used for cleaning) and wood gas, a combustible gas that can be used for cooking and even running engines.

Production
Wood needs to be burned without the presence of oxygen. There are many ways of setting up this system with the one constant being- don't let oxygen in.

At Floating City- as of roughly April 2017- we have a pyrolysis (the fancy term for "burning" without oxygen) chamber 1.0. (PICTURE AND VIDEO NEEDED) The charcoal produced was of very good quality and was used for blacksmithing.

Air and Water Filtration
Activated

Activating Charcoal
Activated charcoal and activated carbon (same thing) is charcoal that has undergone a process resulting in carbon with an IMMENSE surface area. This surface area is excellent at catching odour, bad tastes and bacteria. Though normal charcoal can achieve this to an extent it is important to use activated charcoal for higher quality results.

Activating charcoal can be done in a number of ways. All of which currently not tested by us.

Ash
The ash from the wood used to pyrolyse the charcoal can be put in water to create "potash". This is a solution of sodium and potassium hydroxide (NaCl, KCl respectively.) The ratio of the solution depending on the kind of wood burned with harder wood producing more NaCl, the stronger of the two. These are both strong bases (opposite of acid) and can be used to great effect to clean greasy ovens and remove your eyeballs from their sockets.

This chemical reaction is why you might find your face itches when you're covered in wood ash- it's going basic on your face. Primitive cultures and survivalists will rub ash into their bowls and cutlery during the cleaning process, foregoing the concentration of the chemicals.

Wood Gas
Wood gas can be used for cooking, heating or even running an engine.