Charcoal production

[Saw-sick Steve]

Right, who does it, who's done it, what are the pros and cons? I've been tempted to dabble, but have been put off by stories of failure. Is there a viable market, and is it cost efficient? Worth doing, or is firewood more lucrative?

Anyone?

[strider]

I currently do firewood and charcoal and the firewood gives a far better return and also there is a larger demand. Bad summer nobody BBQ'S and your competing against cheap imports (normally bad quality).

After saying all that when I'm charcoal making either through full size kiln or through 45 gallon drums i'm also working on other projects so there is a balance.

If you are wanting to try the market on a small scale without spending serious money on a kiln the use of 45 gallon drum is great. Cost nothing and depending on type of wood and moisture content can yeld 3-5 bags each time, which I tend to have 3 on the go at a time.

Hope that helps

[Quickthorn]

We did have one bloke do it near us, and got quite a way with it, with contracts to supply a few B&Q type places. He put a hell of a lot of work into it, benefited from free use of tractors, yard space etc and still only just got by. 'Scuse the pun, but it burnt him out in the end; he jacked it in, saying that if he had put as much work into anything else, he'd have been a millionaire.

 

Personally, I don't consider charcoal making to be all that "green". You're driving off all the hydrocarbons in the wood - the bulk of the energy content - and putting them into the atmosphere as pollutants. There'd be more benefit in that wood if it was firewood.

[County4x4]

I can't really answer your question as to whether it would be worth your while doing it - but I used to sell the charcoal made by Ian Taylor who operates as lakeland coppice products , charcoal making in the Lake District

 

There's a lot of information on his website, as well as a diary telling the highs and lows of being a coppice worker - the guy worked in an office for years before deciding to escape the 9-5 routine and head for the woods.

 

Having used his charcoal I can say that it's about as similar to supermarket/garage forecourt stuff as chalk is to cheese. You don't need to do a lot of reading about what goes into charcoal briquettes to promise yourself you'll never let your food near them ever again! Ian's stuff lights with a bit of newspaper, and you use half as much. I stoked it up like I normally did the first time I used it and had to leave it for about an hour to cool down a bit as it was throwing so much heat out! It really is a fantastic product as it stands - and then of course for many people the fact that it's sustainable, is helping to pay for regenerating ancient coppice, is made locally by a local craftsman etc etc - all adds to it's appeal.

 

I think with a bit of careful marketing it could do well. It needs to be pushed as something that really isn't "just another bag of charcoal" - maybe to the greenies or better off people who want to be seen to be using something ethical and sustainable. You'll probably never win over the people who just want to burn some meat and drink a couple of cases of Carlsberg on a Sunday afternoon, but there are people who care about where their stuff comes from and how it's made. Much of the UK charcoal is imported and a lot of it comes from destruction of mangrove swamps and so on, and it's also stuffed with all sorts of crap to make it burn - like I said - I certainly wouldn't cook on it any more.

 

As Strider said - you could have a go at it on a small scale without spending a fortune on ring kilns and the rest of it. Ian markets his product fairly locally - a lot of village shops and the like are selling it for him. I guess it would be much like firewood in that people will try yours and then refuse to buy anywhere else if it's good stuff.

 

Good luck with it anyway - and keep us posted if you give it a go!

 

Andy

[Chris Sheppard]

Always quite fancied having a go at doing a few burns in an oil drum - anyone got any pics? There's plenty of lit on the web but no decent pics to show it.

[strider]

I do have pictures but don't know how to upload them onto the forum, any advise, but also looking after my very active 11 month old grandson today so it may take a while

[County4x4]

Allotment Forestry local charcoal

 

An inexpensive and efficient mini-charcoal kiln by E G K Rao - Wiki | HEDON Household Energy Network:

 

Methode of making charcoal kiln

 

Chapter 8 - Metal kilns

 

Tons of stuff on google if you have a gander.

 

Andy

[thomas_3rd]

the chapter 8 link has a part where it says, 'One man can operate a group of up to 10 oil drum units. The process involves a carbonization period of about two to three hours, followed by a cooling period of about three hours. An experienced operator can cycle ten drums twice each day to produce a total output of up to 30 kg of charcoal from each drum. This means that a one man operation, using 10 kilns, can produce 1½ tons of charcoal per 5-day week, if supplied with adequate prepared wood.'

 

sounds like a lot of bbq's:001_smile:

[Saw-sick Steve]

Cheers for the info guys. Andy, I realise the difference between home-grown and imported charcoal as thats what I use and what got me wondering. Its the same old story of converting Joe Public to the virtures of using it and paying the extra. And theres the rub. If the Government banned the importation of all ''unsustainable'' charcoal, then yer man in the street would switch to home produced and just pay the difference - but thats highly unlikely to happen.

Quckthorn, the scenario you describe is the one I'm familiar with, namely failure despite all the conditions being favourable. I can source the wood for free, have all the gear needed 'cept a kiln, and it seems a great way to use coppice oak without having to wait a couple of years for it to season for logs.

It would also nicely fill a gap in spring when log orders start drying up.

The downsides are that the land is very steep, access is a problem, and I'm not getting any younger! The thought of dragging a large ring kiln up and down a 1in3 slope doesn't exactly fill me with joy, so I like the sound of using several 45 gallon oil drums.

Maybe I'll try a couple of trial burns and see what happens. I'd like to think that with a quality, home produced, eco-friendly product people would be prepared to pay a bit extra, like with logs - but we all know how fickle the Great British Public can be.

[County4x4]

A lot of these sites are aimed at setting up small industries in developing countries and they often have indications of how much a family or group of workers can produce. I think this is one of them. Although the "suggested schedule" indicates working from 0800 until 1700 - and I'm guessing most of us "poor workers" here are doing a bit more than that!!

 

Steve - I seem to remember reading about Ian Taylors fun and games shifting his kilns about in some fairly steep Lakeland woodlands! As for the rest of your post - I quite agree. There are some dodgy things going on in charcoal world - I know of a local company who were re-bagging multiple artic loads of imported crap as "home grown" - the plant I was running at the time recycled all the original bags - several tens of thousands of them!!

 

Andy

Edited December 17, 2009 by County4x4