Charcoal production from alternative feedstocks

Charcoal production from wood is an important cause of deforestation, one of the most urgent environmental problems of Africa. To date experience with the use of wood charcoal alternatives, produced from feedstocks such as charcoal dust, harvest residues, processing residues and invasive species, has been limited. Its production requires additional techniques, investments and an organisation structure that needs to compete with the existing, usually informally organised charcoal sector.

The project ‘Pilots and assessment of alternative feedstocks for charcoal’ has resulted in a report and a decision support tool aimed at facilitating the design of an alternative charcoal supply chain. The alternative charcoal tool (ACT) consists of four parts: feedstock selection, market selection, technology selection and production costs determination, and can be found here.

This report presents background information accompanying the ACT, including an overview of alternative charcoal production technologies and a description of three supply chains presented as case studies. The case studies cover the feedstocks charcoal dust, cotton stalks and bamboo and present, in a harmonised manner, information collected from feasibility studies and established business operations, and discuss the collection, production, logistics, costs, sales, marketing and sustainability of alternative charcoal (briquettes). Although almost all data concerns projects and businesses in Africa, in some cases relevant data from elsewhere has been used as well. The main results are summarised below.