Charcoal production in Africa

     Charcoal production in Africa

     Africa’s population will increase by 35 884 574 in 2022 to reach 1 429 244 521 at the end of the year. 90-95% of people use charcoal for cooking, with the average family of 5 using 1,5 kg/charcoal per day, that is one person consumes about 0,3 kg/day. The total consumption of charcoal is 380 000 – 400 000 tons/day. Almost all of Africa’s charcoal is produced not in an environmentally friendly way. At the same time, emissions of harmful substances are 4 times higher than the volume of charcoal produced, that is, they amount to 1 500 000 – 1 600 000 tons/day. It can be assumed that these data are significantly overestimated and the average family in Africa is 8-10 people, also the fact that charcoal is used by a smaller number of the population. But even if the emissions from charcoal production in Africa are 700 000 – 1 000 000 tons/day. For example, one railway tank car is capable of transporting about 23 tons, that is, 30-40 thousand railway tank cars per day, this will be the amount of emissions. 

     Read more about this issue in the presentation “Traditional Charcoal Production Methods”. I would like to believe that we miscalculated something.

We cannot take away the source of cooking from families in Africa, and we cannot provide them with gas or electricity, which is used for cooking by people in developed countries. GreenPower can solve this problem by supplying environmentally friendly equipment for the production of charcoal from wood and nutshells.