In 2014, the Ithaka Institute developed the Kon-Tiki - a flame-curtain deep-cone kiln that produces high-quality biochar with no external energy, no electronics, and no industrial infrastructure. Any farmer in the world can produce biochar on this principle. Today, Kon-Tiki systems produce not only more biochar than any other method, but by far the most carbon sinks - making the Kon-Tiki, in quantitative terms, the single most important climate technology currently in use.
Ithaka developed most of the current forms of the Kon-Tiki (from deep cone to giant containerized and continuous processing versions) but was by no means the first to use the principle. In fact, we assume that people were applying exactly this method several thousand years ago. Ithaka popularized it and demonstrated scientifically both its advantages such as high-quality biochar at low cost, and its disadvantages, namely emissions that are higher than those of industrial pyrolysis with gas combustion though well below those of open-field crop-waste burning.
Below you will find the history of the Kon-Tiki kilns, along with operating instructions and design manuals.
