How it all began – 1978
I looked at making charcoal in a wood fired furnace in my final year engineering project at Imperial College London .
Queens Tower, Imperial College
Volatiles are driven off from wood when it’s made into charcoal, but make up 50% of its heat value. Some of the volatiles are used to cook the wood but most of this heat value is lost in charcoal making. I tried to make charcoal in a wood fired boiler and use the volatiles for heating. I couldn’t make it work however because of transport and logistics costs. Climate change hadn’t been invented back in 1978.