Attn: Lechon baboy & lechon manok Roasters! Save our mangroves, fight global warming with DOST-FPRDI’s ‘Green Charcoal’

Top players in the country’s chicken roasting industry may soon be using green charcoal to cook their famous grilled products, thanks to a Pampanga-based firm and technologies from the Department of Science and Technology’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI).

Roasting lechon with green charcoal lasts longer and has less effect on global warming compared to traditional fuel. (photo by Tom Udasco)

A charcoal briquette is a compacted mass of fuel material made from charcoal fines and a binder, and molded under pressure. It is less messy than ordinary charcoal and easier to handle because it is compact and uniform in size. Also, it easily ignites, burns more slowly, gives more intense heat per unit volume, and is almost smokeless when burning.

“The bana grass briquette is a most welcome development,” says DOST-FPRDI’s Engr. Belen Bisana, “as the use of eco-friendly charcoal can help relieve pressure on the country’s mangroves. During the past decade, the heavy dependence on wood charcoal by lechon businesses all over the country has been blamed for the depletion of our mangrove forests.”

Green Charcoal

During DOST-FPRDI’s recent techno-demo at Mackay, officers from Mang Inasal Philippines, Inc. were on hand to observe how the bana grass briquettes are made.

Everyone’s go-to Lechon Manok cooks better with hotter, longer-lasting green charcoal

According to Mackay’s Mr. Joseph Issifu, aside from Mang Inasal, are in talks with two other top roasting companies who are interested in their product.

Mackay Green Energy, Inc. acquired 30 manual briquettors, 30 drum kilns, 6 binder-mixers and 6 charcoal crushers from DOST-FPRDI. (Rizalina K. Araral & Carl Anthony Lantican, November 6, 2017)

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