1. THE CHARCOAL PELLET
PRESS
How to Make Waste
Charcoal Dust into Pellets
Using a Simple and
Inexpensive Hand-
powered Press
Joyce Lockard
rj.lockard@frontier.com

2. About half of the world’s people eat food
cooked with wood and charcoal. Cutting trees
for fuel is one reason that the world’s forests
are decreasing by about 2% each year.

3. Many women in developing countries have
to walk long distances to find wood

4. At the same time, charcoal waste that is widely
available is not being burned because no one
can cook a meal on a three-stone or other
simple stove using charcoal dust for fuel.

5. The charcoal made in country-side kilns in
developing countries is fragile. It readily
crumbles when it is broken into pieces for
transporting and sale.

6. UP TO 40% OF CHARCOAL MAY BE LOST AS
DUST AND CRUMBS BEFORE IT GETS TO THE
COOKING FIRE!

7. Large quantities of charcoal waste
accumulate on the ground around
country-side kilns and market stalls.

8. But there is a way to make
charcoal dust and fragments
into cooking fuel!

9. Charcoal dust that is too small to burn in simple
stoves can be made into solid pellets with an
inexpensive CHARCOAL PELLET PRESS.

10. Cut a piece of
plastic water pipe
about 5-7 cm (2”-
3”) in diameter
and 10-15 cm (4”-
6”) long. Make a
wooden plunger
that will fit
loosely into the
pipe.
How To Make the Press

11. If you can’t get a plunger made with a lathe,
you can use a machete to shape a plunger from
a tree branch.

12. You can paint the end of the plunger to help
people not burn it for firewood by mistake.

13. Collect waste charcoal from around charcoal
kilns and market stalls.

14. Sieve out the large particles and crush them.

15. Boil up grated cassava or another starchy
plant material or use clay or termite mound
dirt to make a sticky paste.

16. Mix charcoal dust with enough paste so
that it will stick together when you
squeeze a handful and hold it by one end.

17. Fill the mold about half full of mix.

18. Pound down the mix to make a solid pellet about
5-8 cm (2-3”) thick. Pounding by hand is all the
pressure that is needed to make a pellet.

19. Push the pellet out of the bottom end of the
mold and put it in the sun to dry.

20. This is an
appropriate
technology that
reduces the need
to cut down trees
for firewood and
charcoal by
utilizing waste
materials.

21. Using the pellet press, women can make their
own cooking fuel.

22. And they can make additional
pellets to sell for income.

23. Contact rj.lockard@frontier.com
if you want more information or you can
help spread this technology to people in
developing countries.