Charcoal is a black form of carbon, created through wood or other organic substances in an area that is enclosed or without air.
It has been thousands of years since people learned to manufacture charcoal from all kind of trees. With such experience, men discovered the better grade of charcoal from the woods that are harder. If you want to picture the age-old art of charcoal making, think of several piles of wood prepared for the next bonfire, a charcoal pyre that is half-excavated and sacks filled with charcoal ready to be sold. Those great piles of wood should be arranged properly before setting the fire to slowly "bake" them, letting the moisture boil off and left behind charcoal. You can select today from various types materials to produce charcoal such as bamboo, coconut shells, olive pits, pecan shells and sawdust. Any other material that is organic can be used for you to be able to start producing charcoal and this is really col.
Aside from having your own charcoal ready for you backyard barbecue, you can do a little research on how you can make you own charcoal powder. You may not exactly copy the activated charcoal powder offered in the market but you can produce charcoal powder beneficial to your daily living.
Prepare the following things that you need in producing your own charcoal powder: wood pallets, the top from a portable barbecue grill, the tub from an old washing machine, a hammer, a kitchen blender and a sack, of course. Then, dig some type of fire pit where you can put the best hardwoods which are old pallets. Choose the ones that are seasoned, very dry and do not have any paint on them so they can be burned very well. Expect that even with just small amount of wood, you will get a lot of charcoal.
Depending on the area, people differ in methods with regards to boiling woods. There are areas where the raw wood was just arranged in a pile and placed on the ground top. There are countries using beehive shaped kilns in making charcoals. Then the usual method, using a pit hollowed out in the ground is the typical way of different developing countries in manufacturing charcoal. For you who have prepared the tub from an old washing machine, simply do the very first method mentioned on this site here or on this article.
Start the fire, let the woods burn and you would not wait long until you could see your boards starting to change into coals. You may use a flat shovel so you could scoop up the coals and pile them on the ground ready for a cover (that old top portable barbecue you prepared). To assure that the air is tight, put sand around the bottom of the cover and let its own heat sit in. Sit back and wait as the coals simmer and cook away all the moisture and gases that are volatile.
You may find smaller pile of black coals to crust in a blender after an hour. Put them in the sack and you are done having your own charcoal powder. You may visit online (on this website) for more DIY instructions.