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Comment by georgecmu | Hacker News Reader

I'm disappointed the article neglects to mention the use of actual coal in Kingsford briquettes. I imagine charcoal alone would not be energy-rich enough to get the temperatures.

Anyway, the environmental permit applications for their plant in West Virginia (close proximity to coal) are available online and make for interesting reading: https://dep.wv.gov/daq/permitting/titlevpermits/Documents/Ma... https://dep.wv.gov/daq/permitting/titlevpermits/Documents/No...

For example, one can learn that their VOC emissions are in excess of 100 tons/year or that they can use 80,000 tons of coal per year. I guess folks that are willing to saturate their food in vapors of lighting fluid wouldn't care about a little bit of coal...

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Not an expert here, but I imagine they shove a bunch of wood briquettes into a barrel and seal it shut and then put it in a coal-fired furnace. The wood smolders but there’s no oxygen so charcoal is formed. No coal or coal vapors going in here. Thoughts?

I’ll add - you don’t need fluid! Newspaper or shopping bags and some canola oil works every time.

No, the briquettes have actual coal in them. I was surprised too. I’m switching to lump charcoal when my kingsford runs out.

“That char is then mixed with ground coal and other ingredients to make a charcoal briquette.” [1]

“Technically, charcoal briquettes aren't actual charcoal, but a combination of charcoal and other ingredients molded into easy-to-light lumps. Kingsford Charcoal, for example, by far the most popular brand in the US, is made up of bits of charcoal, coal, starch (as a binder), sawdust, and sodium nitrate (to make it burn better). For the same reason that SPAM is cheaper than a whole ham, briquettes are cheaper to make than all-wood charcoal.” [2]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsford_(charcoal)

[2] https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/cooking-tips/article...

I had to look it up myself but even the brands with less fillers still include lots of fillers and that’s the only way you can do it

Wow thank you! Ive been partial to lump but eager to try out a snake method with briquettes. I think I will skip that now.

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