so i just learned that people make charcoal by putting wood in some container with little oxygen and build a fire around it. but why not just burn the wood directly, and take the leftovers?
im guessing some of the wood burns away if you aren’t using a container, so it’s less efficient, but if you’re in a forest with limitless wood it doesn’t really seem to be worth the effort when you can easily just create a bigger fire. another reason i can guess is that the charcoal you get from using a container is higher quality. if that is the case, why does it produce higher quality charcoal, and what does it mean for charcoal to be higher quality?
In: Chemistry
When you heat wood to very high temperatures without allowing it to burn, it becomes very dry.
Fire needs an oxidiser to happen, so by depriving the wood of oxygen, you don’t allow it to burn whilst still getting it to hundreds of degrees.
When wood burns, as well as drying out, the organic hydrocarbons such as celluose react with the oxygen in the air to form water and carbon dioxide, releasing lots of energy to continue the process.
To try and burn already burnt wood would be useless, as all the compounds in the wood that burn have been burnt.
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