Charcoal Making
Charcoal Burning
Charcoal has been made in the British Isles for at least 4000 years. Bronze Age man used it to smelt first Copper ores and then later Iron ores, to produce some of the first workings in metal by Ancient Mankind.
Today, British Charcoal is produced principally for the barbecue charcoal market as it is vastly superior to imported charcoal generally sold. Environmentally, local charcoal enables a great deal of woodland management work to be undertaken in under managed woodlands, that might not otherwise occur. This work carried out as "coppicing" encourages a large diversification of both flora & fauna to occur and is a system of woodland management dating back thousands of years.
What is Charcoal?
Charcoal is a carbon made from wood that is heated in a controlled manner, with the absence of sufficient air, that would allow for complete combustion. The water contained in the wood is first driven out, followed by the volatile compounds, such as creosote and tar. Cooled at this point in the process, the remaining residue is black carbon, together with a little mineral ash.
The process of wood decomposition becomes, at one stage, exothermic, producing more heat than it absorbs.
This fact explains how a small fire, lit at the heart of a heap of wood, can cause the whole to become 'charred', whilst only a small amount is actually burnt up & consumed by the fire. Charcoal has a far higher calorific value than wood when burnt. This is why it produces such a great heat, especially when air is forced into a charcoal fire by means of 'bellows' etc.
