charcoal pellet press

THE CHARCOAL PELLET PRESS

How to Make Waste Charcoal Dust into Pellets

Using a Simple and Inexpensive Hand-

powered Press

Joyce Lockard

rj.lockard@frontier.com

About half of the world’s people eat food cooked with wood and charcoal. Cutting trees for fuel is one reason that the world’s forests

are decreasing by about 2% each year.

Many women in developing countries have to walk long distances to find wood

At the same time, charcoal waste that is widely available is not being burned because no one

can cook a meal on a three-stone or other simple stove using charcoal dust for fuel.

The charcoal made in country-side kilns in developing countries is fragile. It readily

crumbles when it is broken into pieces for transporting and sale.

UP TO 40% OF CHARCOAL MAY BE LOST AS

DUST AND CRUMBS BEFORE IT GETS TO THE COOKING FIRE!

Large quantities of charcoal waste accumulate on the ground around

country-side kilns and market stalls.

But there is a way to make charcoal dust and fragments

into cooking fuel!

Charcoal dust that is too small to burn in simple stoves can be made into solid pellets with an

inexpensive CHARCOAL PELLET PRESS.

Cut a piece of plastic water pipe about 5-7 cm (2”-

3”) in diameter and 10-15 cm (4”-6”) long. Make a wooden plunger

that will fit loosely into the

pipe.

How To Make the Press

If you can’t get a plunger made with a lathe, you can use a machete to shape a plunger from

a tree branch.

You can paint the end of the plunger to help people not burn it for firewood by mistake.

Collect waste charcoal from around charcoal kilns and market stalls.

Sieve out the large particles and crush them.

Boil up grated cassava or another starchy plant material or use clay or termite mound

dirt to make a sticky paste.

Mix charcoal dust with enough paste so that it will stick together when you

squeeze a handful and hold it by one end.

Fill the mold about half full of mix.

Pound down the mix to make a solid pellet about 5-8 cm (2-3”) thick. Pounding by hand is all the

pressure that is needed to make a pellet.

Push the pellet out of the bottom end of the mold and put it in the sun to dry.

This is an appropriate

technology that reduces the need to cut down trees for firewood and

charcoal by utilizing waste

materials.

Using the pellet press, women can make their own cooking fuel.

And they can make additional pellets to sell for income.

Contact rj.lockard@frontier.com if you want more information or you can help spread this technology to people in

developing countries.