Top: Dried bana grass stalks ready for processing. Bottom: DOST-FPRDI’s Mr. Calixto Lulo and Engr. Amando Allan Bondad (center and right, respectively, in left photo) show Mackay’s Mr. Joseph Issifu how to use the drum kiln and manual briquettor.

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).

A charcoal briquette is a compacted mass of fuel material made from a mix of 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.”

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. According to Mackay’s Mr. Joseph Issifu, aside from Mang Inasal, they have on-going 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)#