Environment: A green industry rises from the ashes

THESE DAYS David Hutchinson is selling his coal to Newcastle, among other places. His coal is in the form of charcoal briquettes for the barbecue revolution that continues to gather momentum in Britain.

His company is among more than 200 charcoal burners now active in the UK, up from 20 four years ago.

Mr Hutchinson set up The Yorkshire Charcoal Company, based in Sawdon, six years ago, supplying barbecue charcoal to local supermarkets, garages, DIY stores and the odd corner shop. He now has two full-time staff, and his latest coup has been to sell his charcoal to a few branches of the B&Q chain, despite its usually strict central buying policy.

'I discussed the idea with them for several months,' Mr Hutchinson says. 'The company agreed to run a pilot scheme, although a little late in the year, and allowed the Scarborough and Bridlington branches to take my charcoal. It has been very successful; in the first week they sold more than 60 2.5kg bags of barbecue charcoal. We are now discussing selling it at more branches in the North next summer.'

Currently 4 per cent (or 60,000 tons) of the charcoal bought in this country is British. Not only does this tend to be of much higher quality than the imported stuff, it is 'greener', coming from broad-leaved woodlands, which thrive on being regularly thinned out.

The flora cannot flourish beneath a dense canopy, so the extra light benefits them and the coppiced trees, which are left to regenerate. Much of the imported charcoal comes from the diminishing forests of Brazil and east Asia.

David Hutchinson became involved with charcoal in the 1980s, after farming oranges in Florida and garlic in Spain, then running a landscape and gardening business in the UK, where he made contacts with the Forestry Commission and eventually realised he wanted to do something linked more closely to environment.

'After studying engineering,' he says, 'and later in life working with earth kilns, I gained such an insight into the working of the kilns that I was able to design a much better kiln than those on the market. I knew what was needed, and had the skills to do it.

'The reason I became involved with charcoal in the first place was because there was such a massive problem in the woodlands. The Forestry Commission had no idea what to do with the thinnings in coppice woods, so I looked at a number of ways of using the spare wood and charcoal-burning fitted in best. There were not that many people involved at the time and it seemed a good thing to get into,' he explained.

He has spent several years and pounds 20,000 developing a revolutionary kiln, the Hutchinson Viper Kiln, which measures 2m in diameter and is 2m tall. He has recently secured a patent for this, although he is still refining it, and with the help of Croydon County Council finally got it built.

'Its advantage is that it is very transportable,' Mr Hutchinson says. 'It is on wheels and it can be taken to the wood supply, eliminating handling time.' It can also - unlike other kilns - burn charcoal continuously, and can be left unattended for up to 12 hours.

Standard kilns need inspecting every three hours, all through the night, in order to work efficiently.

'My kiln will use 4.5 to 5 cubic metres of wood to produce half a ton of charcoal, as opposed to 6 cubic metres needed before. And with charcoal worth around pounds 700 a ton wholesale, the kiln would earn its keep within a few months,' he says.

Mr Hutchinson hopes to be selling the kiln by next summer at pounds 10,000 to pounds 20,000 to conservation groups, local councils and wood-related industries. A considerable amount of interest in it has already been shown, he says.

Croydon council originally became involved because the Bioregional Development Group at Carshalton in Surrey is leading a programme of sustainable development of the charcoal industry in the South- east, in accordance with policy decided at the 1992 Earth Summit. The wider agenda is to re- establish the British charcoal industry through a variety of initiatives to reduce the importation of charcoal and thus reduce the pressure on South- east Asian resources.

Croydon has been heavily involved in the programme, and will use the kiln to convert its urban waste timber to charcoal, which will then be sold through a garden centre, attached to a centre for the disabled.

Mr Hutchinson has also been intrumental in forming the British Charcoal Group, along with a couple of people from the Forestry Commission and other woodland associations, and four burners. They hope to help other burners to increase their market share, raise awareness of the industry in general, give advice and offer training.

There are a few courses on charcoal-burning around Britain, and the group wants to vet each one so that it can recommend the good ones.

Although Mr Hutchinson only sells his charcoal for the barbecue at the moment, it has many other uses. 'But individual burners are too small to sell in the quantities the other industries need,' he says. 'We are trying to get together in groups to supply the quantities they demand.'

Charcoal has uses in water and air filters and horticulture; it is still used by artists and in anti-flatulence tablets; it fuels miniature steam railways and is an ingredient of dog food.

Mr Hutchinson's dream is to take his kiln to a much wider audience. 'Once I have started selling it in this country and the charcoal business really takes off, I would like to approach the Third World countries, which I am sure could put the kiln to very good use.'