Where is charcoal found

In , Nigeria started requiring charcoal exporters to obtain a permit from the Federal Department of Forestry by submitting, among other things, a reforestation plan for their area of production.

But rampant deforestation continued, hence the decision to stop issuing permits entirely. In December , for example, two years after the government stopped issuing permits for the export of charcoal, over 19, kg of hardwood charcoal was unloaded at the port in Miami, Florida, according to Panjiva , a subscription-based website with import and export details on commercial shipments worldwide.

The port of lading was Algeciras, Spain, but the product originated in Nigeria, shipped in a foot container. Red Ember Trading is a subsidiary of Goldengrill, a Spanish charcoal manufacturing company. Goldengrill did not respond to emails and phone calls requesting comment for this story. The Nigeria Customs Service, meanwhile, denies having any responsibility for stopping the exports.

Officials at the Department of Forestry countered that getting a product into the prohibition list requires legislative action, which takes a long time, and said customs was merely covering for its failure in enforcing the ban. The current export prohibition list has only eight items, including corn and timber. Countries have no binding treaty to seize Nigerian charcoal even when it is exported illegally. In a troubling loophole, there is no similar regulation that applies when these endangered species are processed and shipped as charcoal.

Traders routinely obscure the origin of Nigerian charcoal. In a market survey of barbecue charcoal in Germany, the environmental nonprofit World Wildlife Fund found that while no charcoal sold in Germany was labeled as being from Nigeria, some of it clearly was from Nigeria, particularly the charcoal Germany imported from Poland, which in counted Nigeria as its second-highest producer of charcoal, after Ukraine.

The EU Timber Regulation that came into effect in prohibits entry of illegally produced tropical woods but does not specify charcoal. Since , when WWF first conducted the market survey, it has followed up with two more in Germany and similar reports in Switzerland and Belgium. But the company, Dancoal, was recertified in In December , FSC acknowledged in a report that it had discovered that some of the charcoal products it certifies were not coming from certified forests and said it would consequently terminate 63 FSC certifications between and early Europe is still one of the biggest destinations for illegal charcoal from Nigeria and also serves as a conduit to other continents.

Nigerian charcoal is certainly being burned in the U. A company called Bluecamp, registered in Georgia, received nearly 18, kg of charcoal shipped from Antwerp, Belgium, to Savannah in April , according to the bill of lading obtained from Panjiva.

The charcoal was originally supplied by a Nigeria-based company, Primewaters Trading and Logistics, from Lagos. Both companies had similar transactions a year earlier with the bill of lading from Algeciras, Spain. Abayomi Iwajomo, CEO of the company according to his LinkedIn profile and multiple business directories , declined to comment on the transactions.

Similarly, when a 20, kg shipment of Nigerian charcoal was received in a port in South Houston, in August , the bill of lading listed the point of origin as Antwerp. The fact that tracking charcoal export is this complicated may help explain why charcoal rarely comes up in global climate change conversations, despite the danger the trade poses to tropical forests.

Many climate advocates may perceive charcoal as an energy alternative used mostly in Africa by people without electricity. Together, they published their findings in in the journal Resources. By BC, the Phoenicians were storing water in charred barrels on trading ships to improve its taste. Raw sugar from sugar cane or sugar beets is tainted by coloured impurities that can be removed by passing sugar extract through beds of charcoal.

This has the effect of increasing the surface area and establishing a network of submicroscopic pores where adsorption takes place. Later, it was determined that impregnation with chemicals like zinc chloride or phosphoric acid prior to heating improved the adsorption properties.

Today, a variety of activated carbon products are available for use in various applications. Activated charcoal is used in water filters, air purification systems, gas masks and even underwear.

Yes, flatulence filtering undergarment for people suffering from various gastric problems really works. But in order to avoid flatulence escaping around the filter, the patient is recommended to stand with legs together and let the wind out slowly.

Because of its amazing adsorptive properties, activated carbon is a staple in emergency rooms. This improvement is nice—but access to better fuels would be healthier. Charcoal is the principle energy source in many poor areas. Since these families don't have a lot of income, charcoal is often one of the largest parts of a family's budget.

Note that charcoal see figure 1 is different than the briquettes frequently used on barbecues see figure 2. Traditional charcoal has lower purity than lump charcoal or charcoal briquettes.

Traditional charcoal contains mineral sand and clay that is picked up by the wood and its bark, and it contains more ash than the briquettes. Purification of traditional charcoal can be done by removing the ash through a strainer, leaving fragments of mostly good charcoal.

After milling this charcoal from the sifting process, the material is put into briquettes. A binder is mixed with the milled charcoal and pressed into briquettes. During the production of charcoal, wood is cut down into long, cane-sized pieces and placed in some sort of closed vessel.

Generally, wood structures known as charcoal piles are used shown in Figure 3. Within these piles, the wood is heated in the absence of air oxygen that would otherwise allow the wood to ignite and burn away.

Since there isn't enough oxygen for this to occur, the wood is forced to decompose into a variety of substances—one of them being charcoal. Other substances besides charcoal are also created, one of them being ash. These products are known as by-products and can be collected for other uses. As the wood is heated, it absorbs heat and is dried, giving off moisture in the form of water vapour.