This article deals about the making of charcoal.
Methods
Charcoal has been made by various methods. The traditional method in Britain used a clamp. This is essentially a pile of wooden logs (e.g. seasoned oak) leaning against a chimney (logs are placed in a circle). The chimney consists of 4 wooden stakes held up by some rope. The logs are completely covered with soil & straw allowing no air to enter. It has to be lit by introducing some burning fuel into the chimney; the logs burn very slowly (cold fire) and transform into charcoal in a period of 5 days burning. If the soil covering gets torn (cracked) due to the fire, additional soil is placed on the cracks. Once the burn is complete, the chimney is plugged to prevent air to enter.[3] Modern methods use a sealed metal container, as this does not have to be watched lest fire break through the covering.
Why
calorific value is higher (heat per weight). This means that a higher temperature can be acheived; also if the fuel is not burnt where it is grown, the trnasport cost is lower. Peterkingiron (talk) 17:17, 18 December 2010 (UTC)