Producing and marketing natural wood "lump" charcoal

A repository of knowledge, tips and techniques for the production, marketing, and use of wood charcoal. Since our original efforts at making and marketing all-natural, hardwood lump charcoal as the best fuel for outdoor grilling, we’ve expanded our scope to look at uses of charcoal from wood of many different tree species. Recent research has shown that wood charcoal or “biochar” can play prominent roles in the restoration of degraded soils, agroforestry, and carbon sequestration. Small diameter trees are an abundant, practical material for charcoal-making in Virginia and the southeastern United States. When used for this purpose, they help reduce risks of wildfire and serve to improve the health and growing conditions of forests in our region.

Announcements:

• Be sure to visit our Forest Farming Charcoal Production YouTube Channel and check out our videos on how to integrate small-scale charcoal production into Forest Farming. Learn how to maintain a healthy forest while producing natural hardwood charcoal from your own sustainably grown wood.

• Check out Bill Perry's web site about local charcoal production in Nelson County, Virginia.

Research and Development

• Antal, M.J., Grønli, M., 2003. The art, science, and technology of charcoal production. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research 42, 1619-1640.
• Glaser, B., 2007. Prehistorically modified soils of central Amazonia: A model for sustainable agriculture in the twenty-first century.
  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences 362, 187-196.
• Guar, S., Reed, T.B., 1995. An atlas of thermal data for biomass and other fuels. NREL/TP-433-7965 National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado.
• Lehmann, J., 2007a. Bio-energy in the black. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5, 381-387.
• Lehmann, J., 2007b. A handful of Carbon. Nature 447, 143-144.
• Lemieux, P.M., 2001. Emissions of air toxics from a simulated charcoal kiln equipped with an afterburner. EPA/600/R-01/011, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division, Research Triangle Park, NC.
• Marris, E., 2006. Black is the new green. Nature 442, 624-626.
• Ohlson, M., Tryterud, E., 2000. Interpretation of the charcoal record in forest soils: forest fires and their production and deposition of macroscopic charcoal. The Holocene 10, 519-525.
• Syred, C., Griffiths, A.J., Syred, N., Beedie, D., James, D., 2006. A clean, efficient system for producing charcoal, heat and power (CHaP). Fuel 85, 1566-1578. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1995. Emission factor documentation for AP-42 section 10.7: Charcoal, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Research Triangle Park, NC.
• Downing, A., Becker, C. Radtke, P, and D. Richert. 2009. Natural hardwood charcoal: It’s about jobs and improving the forest resource. Engagement Matters 1(5): 10-11. Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources.