Peat Briquette

Although technically (very slowly) renewable and bio-based, the peat in these briquettes is in fact a dwindling and environmentally-critical resource. Peat is formed over thousands of years as a result of the accumulation of decaying vegetation in waterlogged and oxygen-poor soils, but it is being used, as a fuel and a fertilizer, at a much faster rate than it can be formed. In its intact state, peat is an incredibly important global carbon sink, as peat bogs remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the environment, and store twice as much of it as all the forests in the world combined. 

Peat bogs are found in cold, temperate climates, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere. Ireland and Northern Ireland are particularly peat-rich, and this material has historically played a very important role in Irish identity and culture, featuring in the poems of Seamus Heaney for example, where it is described as ‘black butter/Melting and opening underfoot’. However, it was only developed as a major source of fuel relatively recently to make up for a lack of locally available coal in the wake of the second World War. Unfortunately, peat is a highly inefficient fuel: even more so than coal. Peat briquettes, which are mechanically dried and compressed under pressure to mimic the geological processes that make coal, are slightly more efficient than peat ‘turf’, which is air dried naturally and retains more moisture. But both have a lower calorific value than coal, and yet they produce more CO2 per unit, making peat the most damaging and least climate-efficient fuel in terms of global warming.