charcoal – Philippine Tambayan

Charcoal from Old Newspaper

Do not waste old newspaper! During “brown-out” or when you run out of cooking gas, you can

make use of charcoal from old newspapers.

Procedure:

1. Soak old newspapers and magazines for about two hours in water.

2. When the water is thoroughly soaked and soft, tear chunks of paper enough to be pressed into two inches balls.

3. Press out the water.

4. Dry the wet briquettes on the concrete floor during hot and sunny days.

5. When thoroughly dried store in plastic bags so that the briquettes will not absorb moisture.

6. Use paper briquettes as substitute for wood charcoal.

Source: Tekno tulong

Charcoal briquettes is powdered or crushed charcoal mashed and molded using binder which

can either be cassava, corn or camote powder. As fuel, charcoal briquettes gives more heat

than ordinary charcoal or wood. It is almost smoked-free and heat is consistent. The fire lasts

longer than ordinary charcoal and can be easily stored or transported because it is lighter in

weight.

The briquettes which are hard can be used in industrial ovens instead of using carbon in

melting the metal from iron ore or stone.

Charcoal briquettes can be made from rice hull, coconut barks, twigs or shells or husk and

powder from husk and wooden saw dust, wood trimmings, twigs, branches and the like.

Aside from fuel, the briquettes can be used in different industries such as in making carbon

disulfide, carbon electrodes, carbon tetrachloride, carbon carbide, sodium cyanide and

activated charcoal. Activated carbon is used in filtering air or water.

Procedure:

1. Mix in one pail or container:

1 part rice hull

6 parts of fresh carabao or cow dung (or horse)

2. Place weight in mixture to remove excess water.

3. Pour in molds with both ends open (to remove easily when it gets hard).

4. Remove from molds and dry under the sun for three to four days.

There are many ways of charcoal making, but the simplest so far is the use of drum. The

method modified by the Forest Products Research and Industries Development (Los Baños)

are the following: