Caradoc Charcoal

PROJECT OVERVIEW: Caradoc Charcoal is a newly formed company, based in South Shropshire, creating charcoal from 100% British timber. A bi-product of the processing and making of charcoal is sawdust and biochar. They wanted to be able to utilise these products in the most efficient way that could enhance their business.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES: Caradoc Charcoal were keen to reduce their waste by making use of these by-products of production. Biochar can be used as an alternative to soil improvers but the market place is not confident in this. There is also the possibility of turning pelleted sawdust into biochar but there is uncertainty around the feasibility of this.

PROJECT SOLUTIONS: CREST completed research into biochar and pelleted sawdust; including cost of processing, use of additives as a binding agent and market interest in the products. This has now become a longer term research project with ongoing horticulture field trials at Reaseheath College. They will extend this research to explore if the addition of biochar has an impact on milk yield/quality and cow/calf health.