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Regional
Scale Charcoal Production
The success of BioRegional Charcoal
Company (BRCC) has shown there is a growing demand for UK charcoal
as a result of its high quality and consumer demand for supermarkets
to source environmentally sound and locally produced products. BRCC’s
product is supported by the Butterfly Conservation, the Forestry
Commission, Alan Titchmarsh, local Wildlife Trusts and DEFRA.
BRCC plans to increase sales of charcoal to 2000 tonnes per annum
by 2010 which will support 2000 hectares of sustainable managed
woodlands. However the network is currently at full capacity so
in order to achieve this target, BioRegional plans to develop regional
scale charcoal production to compliment the existing network of
burners.
With funding support from the Department of Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA’s) Environmental Action Fund,
the BOC Foundation, The D’Oyle Carte Trust, The Dulverton
Trust and WWF (UK), BioRegional has commissioned trials on a new
regional scale plant which makes best use of the latest clean technology
in the UK.
The five planned new plants will each be designed to scale up to
production levels of 400 tonnes per annum, using timber from a maximum
of 50 km range. They will incorporate an additional innovative cycle
in the process which will burn the gases generated during the carbonisation
process to provide heat that will pre-dry the feedstock wood thus
increasing the overall efficiency of the operation.
Regional charcoal making will also help to revive rural economies;
each plant will create around 10 jobs, some at the plant itself,
others in the management of woodlands.
Once the trials have been carried out successfully, the plan is
to secure sufficient investment and funding to build a full scale
prototype.
For more information about BioRegional’s
Regional Charcoal Project contact :
Pooran Desai
pd@bioregional.com
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Last updated 14th January 2008
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