You have probably noticed, whilst doing your weekly shop at your local supermarket, that there are bags of recycled wood briquettes on sale.

Apparently they are the new “fuel” for those who are lucky enough to have a wood burning stove at home but, what exactly are they? Briquettes are made from the waste wood and off-cuts that have not been needed by the furniture industry or, in some circumstances, they have been made from pieces of old timber that has been thrown into skips. Manufacturers of these briquettes take the waste timber and sawdust and apply huge pressure to it to form brick-shaped and brick-sized briquettes. Molecules in the wood melt and bind the sawdust and wood chip dust together to form a solid “brick”. The moisture content of most briquettes is around 10% meaning that they burn super-efficiently and they give off a surprising amount of heat.

Owners of wood burners are slowly beginning to catch on to this new chip on the block!