What is charcoal? And how is it different from coal?

Nevertheless, nowadays the industries have been using charcoal to produce many types of products not only related to cooking.

Charcoal can be extremely useful and the charcoal market is growing fast due to the fact that we already know how this product is potential for different businesses. Let’s understand more about it.

Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue, produced by strongly heating wood or other animal and plant materials, but It can also be produced by heating the material in a closed retort. Charcoal itself burns at a higher temperature than wood, with hardly a visible flame, and gives off practically no smoke, soot, or unburnt volatiles.

Plain charcoal is a great fuel as it produces heat and the costs remain low. It is also widely used for barbeque as you do not need to wait a long time for natural wood to burn and it gives extra flavour to the grilled food.

Once charcoal is activated (high temperature combined with a gas or activating agent expands the surface area) it becomes much more widely used and it is becoming more and more popular across industries.

Most common uses of Charcoal

Charcoal has been used since the earliest times for a large range of purposes, but because of the innovation around the business and manufacturers, we can use this product for different types of purposes.

1. Food industry 🥩

The most popular way to use charcoal is in a barbeque. In addition, charcoal is used as a food colouring and for its supposed health benefits it gives food an earthy, smoky taste and the black colouring gives the food an exotic, fashionable appearance.

2. Cosmetic industry 💄

Furthermore, charcoal is also a vital ingredient for the manufacturing of cosmetic products. Activated charcoal may be beneficial when applied topically. Skincare products with activated charcoal are popular because of this reason and can come in the form of face washes, face masks, moisturizers, and body wash. Today, we can find charcoal in deodorant and toothpaste too. Charcoal deodorant can draw out bacteria and odors while charcoal toothpaste can help clear plaque and be used for teeth whitening.

3. Pharmacy industry 💊

Humans have been using activated charcoal for hundreds of years because of its ability to detoxify the body. The pharmacy industry has been using charcoal to launch different types of medicine. The most common medicines nowadays are used to treat overdose, poisoning, diarrhea, and also hangover (source).

4. Pyrotechnics 🎇

It is used extensively in the production of fireworks. Usually, it is used to obtain showers of golden sparks in pyrotechnic compositions.

5. Art 🎨

Charcoal is used in the art for drawing, making rough sketches in painting , and is one of the possible media for making a parsonage. Commonly, it is formed into a rectangular shape stick and used like a pencil to draw.

6. Automotive fuel 🚓

In times of scarce petroleum, automobiles and even buses have been converted to burn wood gas released by burning charcoal or wood in a wood gas generator.

7. Waste water treatment ♒

Charcoal is effective to work as a water filter due to the fact this product readily adsorbs a wide range of organic compounds dissolved or suspended in gases and liquids.

8. Air pollution control 💨

It is used to absorb, toxins and gas from the air. In World War 1 it has been used in face gas masks to prevent from breathing in toxins and gas from the air and developed further thereafter.

9. Chemical and Smelting industry 🧪

Certain types of charcoal can also be used for metallurgical processes, like forging steel, smelting metals, or even in smelting sands, which are used to cast metal.

10. Carbon source 🌑

Charcoal may be used as a source of carbon in chemical reactions. Carbon is a base material in many products, therefore can be extremely useful (source)

Cre: Tosk Global Ventiures