White charcoal production process

Because we have green woods all year with varied plant systems in Vietnam, the raw resources for producing white coal are similarly diversified and abundant. The following woods are used to make white charcoal: eucalyptus, longan, coffee, apricot, casuarina, acacia, mother-of-pearl, and mangrove. Binchotan white coal manufacturing is a multi-stage process that necessitates meticulousness.

Step 1. 

After being chopped and sawed, the wood is placed in the kiln, and the logs are arranged vertically in the kiln to burn firewood on the incinerator hole for three days at a low temperature of 80-100 degrees Celsius. The oven door is sealed with bricks and clay during this period, with just a few small openings allowing steam to escape.

Step 2. 

By the end of the third day, the worker had broken a portion of the clay at the furnace's door, allowing air to flow in. At this point, the furnace temperature must be adjusted to entirely eliminate the wood plastic; the wood burns almost completely. Simultaneously, the heat evaporates the remaining water in the coal. This is a critical step, so proceed with caution. If the furnace temperature is too low, the wood will not burn to the desired level, resulting in poor quality coal. The coal will burn to ash if the temperature is too high.Workers rely on the color of the fire in the furnace to adjust the temperature.

Step 3.

The temperature in the furnace will rise to 1200 degrees Celsius; upon unloading the coal furnace, the worker completely opens the oven door to allow the heat to escape. Because the wood has burnt into charcoal and the coal is orange-yellow, the worker must stand 4m away from the furnace when raking the coal out due to the tremendous heat released by the furnace.

The hot red coals are soon taken from the incinerator and placed in iron barrels or buried in the ground to cool.

Criteria for evaluating a batch of high-quality coal: 

- The coal's cross section is shiny black.

- When smashing two coals together, they must emit a tinkling sound, similar to metal hitting metal.

- To seal the coal furnace, they use a powder made of sand, earth, and ash. As a result, the coal surface is white. The quick temperature rise, followed by rapid cooling, burns the exterior layer of the wood, resulting in white charcoal with a firm - solid - smooth surface that does not blacken when touched.

  Advantages of white coal

- Long heat-resistant burn duration (average 3-5 hours depending on conditions and location of use)

- No fire, no sparks, no smoke, no odor, and a very high calorific value: 8000 - 9000 kcal/kg, thus while burning red, the coal emits infrared radiation, which cooks food from the inside out and on the surface. - The exterior is neither burned or crispy, but the inside keeps the natural flavor of the food. Normal temperature is from 500 to 700 degrees Celsius; with a fan, it may reach 1000-1100 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, very no ash is produced after baking, making cleanup a breeze.