If you do not burn the biomass well, it won't turn into charcoal!! This is how you make sure it burns:

1. Put a big stick or pole in the middle of the barrel and some small poles around the outside before you put anything in. This will make the oxygen flow better as the biomass burns. Take out all these sticks before lighting the fire.
2. Make sure the biomass is very dry so it will light easily.
3. Use a cutlass to make the pieces small small before putting them into the barrel.
4. Pack the pieces in LAYERS, so the big pieces that don't burn quickly are layered between small pieces that burn fast.
5. Don't pack the biomass too hard!! Oxygen needs to flow through the whole barrel.
6. After you light the fire, WAIT for all the white smoke to go away before trying to set fire to the flame. The white smoke is water vapour. Make sure the smoke is on fire for about 5-10 minutes before covering the barrel!
7. If some of your charcoal pieces are brown once you break them open, throw them out or burn them again. Your charcoal should be very BLACK, and break into powder easily.

If you burn the biomass too much, it will turn grey and you will have ash instead of charcoal!! This means that you left the fire burn for too long without covering it. This is how you can control the fire:

1. Cover the barrel about 5-10 minutes after the smoke catches on fire.
2. Make sure that there is NO SMOKE escaping from the barrel!!! Use sand or dirt to cover all of the holes around the bottom. Put something heavy on the lid of the barrel to press it down.

If you mix too much cassava paste into the charcoal pieces, your charcoal won't catch fire!!

1. You only need one whole cassava, or a few handfuls or cassava powder (like kokonte). Mix this with BOILING water to make the starch glue.
2. Add the cassava glue to the charcoal powder SLOWLY so you don't add too much! Mix the charcoal powder after adding a bit of glue to check the thickness.
3. When the charcoal has enough glue, you can squeeze the charcoal powder with the glue in your hand and it will hold together loosely. It should still feel DRY, and you should be able to crumble it back into powder!