Tunisia, is about four times larger than The Netherlands and has 10,5 million inhabitants. The use of charcoal is very poplar for indoor cooking, tea ceremonies, smoking the hookah and preparing meat in the restaurants. Charcoal makes an excellent fuel for cooking. It requires no extra preparation and needs no cutting , it also burns with a steady heat which cuts down the amount of time spent looking after the fire.

Tunisia doesn't have a large forest area to produce the necessary wood to prepare charcoal. But instead of this, there are 20 million olive trees which have to be pruned every year. And there are also large numbers of Almond trees and other fruit trees which have to be pruned. These large numbers of fruit trees are mainly concentrated between the coastal towns of Sfax and Soucce.

To produce one ton of charcoal you need 5-8 m³ of raw material. Those numbers become even more spectacular when you see the amount of the world production. Worldwide there will be a production of 50 million tons of charcoal. That's 250-400 million tons of raw material.

Almost the whole worldwide production is based on the traditional way of making charcoal. wood is gathered in a pit or tacked in pile and set on fire. A carefully stacked woodpile may contain 80 tonnes of wood. Three people will spend a week working on such a pile.

When the temperature of the pit or pile is high enough, i.e when the wood in the pile is dried enough, it is covered with a layer of earth to prevent uncontrolled air entrance in the wood pile. Experts in traditional charcoal making control the inflow of air by making small holes on the cover of the pile. Three people have to control the process of burning for ten days and ten nights before the process is finished.

Experts in traditional charcoal making control the inflow of air by making small holes on the cover of the pile. Three people have to control the process of burning for ten days and ten nights before the process is finished.

The wood pile will reduce its volume to about 75%. From 80 tonnes of wood it will reduce to 20 tonnes of charcoal.

Another three days are needed to pull apart the charcoal stack and sort it out.

The emissions of airborne pollution and harmful components to the ground, produced during the traditional way of making charcoal are significant. These are Products of Incomplete Combustion, so called PIC which are emitted to the air or to the ground, i.e. condensable such as acetic acid, methanol and more complex chemicals. It is also very bad for the environment and for the people working and living near the production facilities. PUM (Netherlands Senior Expert) in the Hague received a request for information about the improved charcoal making technology (slow pyrolysis). A group of entrepreneurs which produced charcoal in the traditional way, want to change the production so that the impact on the environment will be seriously reduced.

Tunisia -Sfax