Kiln
Overview
A kiln is a giant oven that enables the hardening, burning, drying, or firing of materials.
Easily constructed with CEB or Concrete, a Kiln serves a wide number of useful functions
Research
There are multiple types of kilns, including batch feed and continuous feed processes. A general purpose kiln that can be used in a variety of applications could serve to be quite useful in a GVCS Community.
Specifications
- Bricks 900-1000 °C
- Firebricks 1650°C
Product Ecology
Kiln
Made of
- CEB - walls, floor
- Concrete Mixer - Concrete
- Controller Box - Temperature controls
Uses
- Sawmill - Lumber
- Gasifier - Heat
- CEBs - Bricks
- Pelletizer - Dries pellets
Creates
- Lumber (dried)
- Charcoal (via wood pyrolysis
- Cement (clay + lime) for Concrete Mixer.
- Glass
- Metal (smelted from ore)
- Bricks (fired)
- Pellets
Applications
Wood Drying
A freshly felled tree cut into logs and run through the Sawmill will produce Green Wood. While viable as a construction material in many applications, green lumber has a nasty habit of warping and shrinking over time (which can cause issues).
One approach toward addressing this is simple air drying. The lumber is stacked in a clean, cool, dry and shady area, atop raised foundations, with spacers (called stickers) laid crossways at regular intervals for ventilation. While air-drying Sawmill lumber is a viable option (and produces high-quality lumber), it is a process that can take months to years.
A kiln accelerates this process by rapidly heating and drying the lumber, enabling on demand fabrication of wood products.
Bricks
Additional structural strength can be gained from CEBs upon firing in a kiln (although this is unnecessary in many applications]].