When searching for charcoal briquette making machine suppliers in China, businesses prioritize efficiency, affordability, and adaptability to their production requirements. Whether you’re processing agricultural waste, sawdust, or biomass, selecting the right supplier and equipment ensures high-quality charcoal briquettes for BBQ, industrial fuel, or export.
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Chinese charcoal briquette machines are designed to handle diverse raw materials, but choosing a supplier that aligns with your inputs is critical. Common materials include:
Agricultural waste: Rice husks, coconut shells, peanut shells.
Forestry byproducts: Sawdust, wood chips, bamboo.
Biomass: Straw, palm kernel shells, coffee husks.
Reputable charcoal briquette press machine manufacturers customize equipment to suit moisture content (8–12% ideal) and material hardness. For fibrous or coarse materials like coconut shells, opt for machines with pre-crushers and high-pressure molding systems.
Your production volume determines the type of machine needed. Chinese suppliers offer three main categories:
Small-scale machines: 500–1,000 kg/day – Ideal for startups or local markets.
Mid-capacity machines: 1–5 tons/day – Suitable for regional distributors.
Industrial systems: 10+ tons/day – Built for large factories or export-focused operations.
Leading charcoal briquette machine exporters in China provide automated systems with features like continuous feeding, hydraulic compression, and PLC control to maximize efficiency. For example, a 3-ton/hour rotary dryer paired with a hydraulic press can streamline high-volume processing.
The end use of your charcoal briquettes dictates machine selection. Key considerations include:
Shape: Pillow, hexagonal, or round briquettes for BBQ; cylindrical logs for industrial boilers.
Density: 1.2–1.4 g/cm³ ensures slow, even burning.
Binders: Some machines require additives like starch or clay, while others use natural lignin for eco-friendly production.
Suppliers specializing in customized charcoal briquette equipment adjust mold designs and pressure settings (80–120 MPa) to meet specific standards. For export markets like Europe, ensure machines comply with emission regulations (e.g., CE certification).
1. Cost-Effective Solutions: Competitive pricing without compromising durability.
2. Technical Expertise: Many years of experience in biomass processing technology.
3. After-Sales Support: Installation guidance, spare parts, and maintenance training.
Guanma Machinery offer turnkey charcoal briquette production lines, including crushers, dryers, and packaging systems.
By partnering with trusted charcoal briquette making machine suppliers in China, you secure scalable, profit-driven solutions tailored to your raw materials and market demands. Start your sourcing journey today!
Heating briquettes are a true modern marvel.
Being made of densely-pressed sawmill sawdust, they’re affordable, efficient, and extremely eco-friendly. Being much drier than conventional firewood logs, they burn low on smoke, which drastically lowers the amount of unsafe gases, including creosote, that are produced by your wood burning stove. On top of that, being much more energy-dense than traditional wood logs, they’re super easy to store and handle.
So what is a wood briquette? How are the various types different from one another? And which type of briquette is the right choice for you?
Check out Lekto's wide selection of quality Ready to Burn briquettes here. Or continue reading this in-depth article on to find out everything you need to know about briquettes.
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Briquette are a type of heating fuel made of a compressed combustible material. The two major types of briquettes are coal briquettes and biomass briquettes. Coal briquettes are, as the name suggests, made of coal. On the other hand, biomass briquettes can be made from virtually any organic material, including wood, peat, rice husks, and straw. Traditionally, briquettes made in the shape of a small brick, hence the name. Today, briquettes exist in many different shapes and sizes, including:
Biomass briquettes are heating briquettes made from compressed biomass. Shredded organic material is dried, refined, and placed in a special briquetting machine. There, it is compressed or extruded to a desired shape and density by an industrial pressing rod.
The most often used materials for the production of briquettes are byproducts of the sawmill industry. This being said, briquettes can be made from virtually any form of combustible biomass, including most types of agricultural (and even municipal) waste.
Briquettes typically come in either log or brick shape, with the latter being more common around the globe. The word “briquette” actually came into English from French and means “little brick”.
Thanks to modern advancements in wood fuel technology, manufacturers can create briquettes with properties far exceeding those of the woods they are made of. This is typically done by altering either the composition or the density of the briquette.
Night Briquettes
In theory, briquettes can be made from virtually any combustible organic material. This being said, not all organic material makes for good briquettes. Listed below are some of the better options for briquetting:
Briquettes have many advantages over traditional firewood logs, including:
As a result of their low moisture content and high density, wood briquettes contain a lot more energy than an equivalent volume of regular firewood.
For example, a single Lekto Hardwood Heat Log has a calorific value of 10.3 kWh. For reference, this is more than the full battery capacity of the Renault Captur E-Tech PHEV (9.8 kWh).
Lekto Hardwood Heat Logs
There is one type of wood fuel that is more energy-dense than briquettes. That fuel is coal.
However, today many users are switching away from coal to briquettes for both health and environmental reasons.
Burning coal releases many harmful toxins into your home. And it also releases a large amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Not to mention the fact that coal mining is also incredibly damaging to the environment.
On the other hand, briquette production actually reduces waste.
Unlike firewood, no trees need to be cut to produce briquettes. Instead, they are made from traditionally discarded materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
Briquettes can be designed to have properties that far exceed those of the woods they are made of. Nothing exemplifies this better than briquettes made for ultra-long burn times.
Firewood can only burn for a couple of hours at most. So, if you want to heat your home with firewood, you need to wake up in the middle of the night to add extra logs to the stove.
Because of this inconvenience, people had to traditionally resort to using unhealthy and environmentally damaging coal.
But nowadays there are modern briquette wood fuels that give you the benefit of long burn time without negatively impacting your health and the environment. Night Briquettes, for example, can burn for up to 8 hours without any tending.
Lekto Night Briquettes
Being extremely energy-dense, wood briquettes require far less storage space than firewood to produce an equivalent amount of heat.
Briquettes also often come in easy-to-store boxes that can be stacked on top of each other.
And, unlike coal, briquettes will not stain your hands or clothes. So you can handle them with your bare hands and don't have to worry about breathing in unhealthy coal dust.
Being made from sawmill byproducts, wood briquettes are also very cost-effective.
When purchased in bulk for the entire heating season, using them can be far more economical than using regular firewood. Not to mention the added ecological and storage space benefits.
The vast majority of the world's biomass briquettes are made from sawdust.
Briquettes are made by compressing or extruding shredded combustible biomass (such as sawdust or peat) to a desired shape and density.
The raw biomass material is first collected, dried, refined, and shredded.
The material is then transported to a briquetting facility.
A screw conveyor then transports the prepared material into the briquetting machine's pressing chamber.
There, a pressing ram compresses it to the desired shape and density.
If necessary, the briquettes are then further dried to achieve the appropriate moisture levels.
The term RUF briquettes is used synonymously with heat logs and briquettes.
RUF is the brand name of a very popular producer of briquetting machinery. Over time, the name RUF became synonymous with briquettes. Much like Google is synonymous with search engines, Biro with ballpoint pens, and ChapStick with lip balm.
Pini Kay briquettes
Being made from waste material, such as sawdust or rice husks, virtually all types of briquettes are incredibly eco-friendly.
Wood briquettes are briquettes made from wood chips, wood shavings, sawdust, parawood chunks, or bark.
Depending on the blend of wood materials used in their composition, they can possess a wide variety of beneficial properties, many of which far exceed those of traditional firewood.
Lekto Sawdust Briquettes
Yes, wood briquettes are superior to traditional firewood logs in many respects. High-quality, low-moisture wood briquettes will burn longer and hotter than the equivalent volume of traditional firewood. If used properly, heating a house with briquettes can also be a lot cheaper than heating it with regular firewood.
Yes, heat logs are a great choice for use in wood-burning stoves.
The burn time of a briquette depends on various factors, including its composition, size, and moisture levels. The longest burning briquettes on the market today are Night Briquettes. They can burn for 8 hours without any tending.
Yes, heat logs are perfectly suitable for use in most log burners.
No, sawdust briquettes are not smokeless. That being said, they can be used in smoke-free areas if burned in a Defra-approved appliance.
Charcoal briquettes (aka BBQ Briquettes) are made from sawdust that is slowly burned in an oxygen-free atmosphere until it is virtually free of moisture.
Unlike other types of briquettes, BBQ charcoal briquettes cannot be created without chemical additives.
These additives are necessary to bind the charcoal fines together and give the finished product a marketable shape.
The presence of these additives makes charcoal briquettes harder to light.
In order to combat this, some manufacturers add lighter fluid to their charcoal briquettes during the production process.
Charcoal briquettes are the only type of briquette Lekto experts advise buyers to avoid. This is because regular lumpwood charcoal is superior to them in almost any way.
Let’s take a closer look at why.
Lumpwood Charcoal
Charcoal briquettes vs lump charcoalWhen compared to regular lump charcoal, charcoal briquettes burn much cooler. This slightly limits their use in an outdoor barbeque setting.
Being made of compressed material, charcoal briquettes also leave behind more ash than regular lumpwood charcoal.
Due to the presence of binding agents, charcoal briquettes are also naturally more difficult to light than lump charcoal.
To combat this, many manufacturers add chemical lighting fluids during the production process.
While this helps make them easier to light, it can also leave a noticeable chemical taste in the air.
Some people also report being able to taste a hint of lighter fluid in the food, especially fish and chicken.
If this is a concern to you but you still want to use BBQ briquettes, choose quality charcoal briquettes that do not have any lighting fluid additives. While these options will be harder to light, the food you cook will be 100% free of any chemical smells.
Peat briquettes are a very popular option in some areas of the world, such as Ireland.
In order to produce them, raw peat is dried, shredded, and compressed in a briquetting machine.
High-quality peat briquettes are virtually smokeless, easy-to-store, and highly convenient due to their long burn time.
One important thing to note about peat briquettes is that they have a very characteristic smell.
People who grew up around this smell often like this smell and characterize it as nostalgic and charming, but others might find it offputting.
Want more information on Straw Briquetting Machine? Feel free to contact us.
What is peat?Peat is the product of the decomposition of marsh plants in low-oxygen, high humidity environments. When burned, peat produces an unmistakable odour.
Are peat briquettes eco friendly?Yes, peat briquettes are an environmentally friendly, sustainable fuel. They are a 100% natural, renewable resource. When burned, they produce less smoke and CO2 than the vast majority of other wood fuels.
Are peat briquettes smokeless?Peat briquettes are almost 100% smokeless, producing much less smoke and ash than the vast majority of wood fuels.
Can you burn peat briquettes on a barbecue?It depends. Some “food grade” peat briquettes can be used for certain types of barbequing. Best used for indirect heat cooking, peat can bring a unique aroma to your grilled foods.
If you like the smell of peat, you will like that aroma. If you don’t like it, it is best to choose a different wood fuel for your barbecuing needs.
Do peat briquettes give off creosote?No, peat briquettes do not give off creosote. Creosote is only released when wet wood fuels (such as unseasoned logs) are burned.
While wood and peat are by far the most common materials used for briquetting, briquettes can be made out of virtually all combustible biomass.
It is common for members of agricultural communities in the US and Europe to make briquettes out of hay and straw.
People in countries where large rice plantations are common (such as Bangladesh and China) often burn rice husk briquettes for heat and energy.
In other parts of the world, briquettes made from bagasse (a byproduct of the sugarcane juicing process) are very common.
Some urban areas have even started creating briquettes out of municipal solid waste. These briquettes are often used as an eco-friendly way of heating boilers.
Lekto Heat Logs
Best general use briquettes
Sawdust briquettes are a perfect general-use replacement for traditional firewood. They give off a lot of heat, are easy to light, and require minimal tending. So if you’re searching for an all-in-one solution for all your heating needs, you can’t go wrong with sawdust briquettes.
Best briquettes for home heatingIf you want to keep things simple, then you can heat your house with sawdust briquettes all year round. Simply vary the number of briquettes you use in accordance with the weather. Just like you would with regular firewood.
But if you aren’t afraid of using several wood fuels for your heating needs, then we recommend also adding heat logs and Night Briquettes into the mix.
Heat logs burn much hotter than sawdust briquettes, so they are perfect for colder nights.
Night Briquettes, on the other hand, burn cooler but have an incredibly long burn time. This makes them an incredibly convenient second fuel to heat your home at night. In milder weather, they can also be used as an economical main fuel.
Best briquettes for multi-fuel stovesPini Kay Eco Logs are perfect for use in multi-fuel stoves and log burners. This is because, unlike regular heat logs, they do not expand in size and have a special, roll-preventing shape.
Best briquettes for overnight heatingNight Briquettes are the perfect option for overnight heating. They give off heat in a slow, gradual manner. With a burn time of 8 hours, you can light them before going to bed and they’ll still be burning when you wake up.
What briquettes burn the hottest?Heat Logs are the hottest-burning type of briquette. They burn at such a high temperature that new users are advised to exercise caution when using them for the first time.
What briquettes burn the longest?Night Briquettes have the longest burn time of any wood fuel on the market today. They can burn for 8 hours without any tending.
Best briquettes for open firesPini K logs are a great option for open fires. Unlike regular heat logs, Pini Kay briquettes do not expand in size and have a special, roll-preventing shape. At the same time, they have virtually all of the benefits of heat logs, such as a strong fire and high heat output.
Pini Kay Eco Logs
Humans have been compacting flammable biomass for thousands of years.
In order to give firewood-like properties to shredded material, our ancestors used such primitive techniques as balling, drying, and bundling.
These pre-industrial proto briquettes were inferior to regular firewood in virtually all ways.
Briquetting, as we know it today, appeared in the second part of the 19th century.
The use of a machine for making peat briquettes was first documented in a report dating to .
However, it is possible that similar machines were in use even earlier. They simply weren’t documented.
Most early briquetting machines consisted of nothing more than a simple roller.
The peat was first shredded and dried.
Then, a binding agent (such as lignin) was added to it.
The peat was then placed into the machine and compacted by its roller.
This early method of briquette creation could only supply a limited amount of pressure, so the briquettes produced by this method did not have the energy density and heat output of their modern counterparts.
The first viable technique for charcoal briquette production was invented in the late 19th century. Their invention is often misattributed to Henry Ford, but the real inventor is Ellsworth B. A. Zwoyer.
Having patented the “charcoal briquet” in , Zwoyer began producing and selling them through his Zwoyer Fuel Company.
The invention did not achieve widespread acclaim, however.
While Henry Ford did not invent the charcoal briquette, he did indeed help popularize it.
In his never-ending quest to cost-optimize the automobile assembly process, Ford turned to charcoal briquettes as a form of cheap fuel for his factories.
Noticing the amount of wood shaving and sawdust waste produced at his plants, Henry founded Ford Charcoal to take on the job of turning all of that waste material into charcoal briquettes.
The initiative was a great success and helped reduce the production costs of the Ford Model T even further.
Ford Charcoal was bought by an investment group in and rebranded as Kingsford, in honor of Edward G. Kingsford.
The company remains the largest producer of charcoal briquettes in the world to this day.
The modern, piston-based briquetting machine was invented in Switzerland and gained widespread use in the s.
During World War II, briquettes made from sawdust and wood shavings exploded in popularity as populations were faced with widespread fuel shortages.
But this popularity was not long-lived.
After the war, cheap hydrocarbon fuels became available once again and briquettes fell out of favour.
This would set an industry pattern for the rest of the 20th century.
Whenever energy prices would rise (such as in the late s and early s), organic fuel briquettes would experience a surge in popularity.
When energy would become cheap again, briquettes would be squeezed out of the market by cheap hydrocarbons.
The latest page in the history of briquettes is characterized by more stable demand and competition-driven innovation.
As people and governments all over the world are recognizing the adverse effects of waste and pollution on the environment, they are turning to organic briquettes as a source of clean, eco-friendly energy.
The increased demand created a highly competitive environment with dozens of large briquette producers fighting for customers.
As in other industries, this competition led to widespread advancement and innovation.
Modern briquettes possess qualities that far exceed those of traditional firewood and even earlier briquette products.
A great example of this are Night Briquettes. Made from a proprietary mix of sustainably sourced softwood bark, Night Briquettes can burn for an incredible 8 hours and require absolutely no tending.
Lekto Night Briquettes
Wood briquettes (also called heat logs) are a type of wood fuel made from dry compressed biomass. They can be made from a variety of materials, including sawdust, wood bark, rice husks, and peat.
The name briquette came into English from French. The literal meaning of “briquette” is “little brick”.
Heat logs are a type of wood fuel made from low-moisture compressed sawdust.
Heat logs are made by compressing sawdust with a specialized pressing machine. The sawdust is first dried and then placed in the pressing chamber of the machine. A special pressing ram is then used to compress them into the desired shape.
Heat logs are superior to traditional firewood in a multitude of ways. They burn longer and hotter. Being made of sawmill byproducts, they are also much more eco-friendly than firewood. In many cases, they are also more cost-effective and economical to use.
Heat logs are usually made from highly compressed sawdust.
Making briquettes from wood shavings or sawdust requires a special briquetting machine. The machine uses a high-pressure pressing ram to compress the material into the desired shape. A typical briquetting machine from a reputable manufacturer like RUF can cost over £100,000, so making your own briquettes is not financially viable for most people.
Lump charcoal burns hotter than charcoal briquettes (aka BBQ briquettes). This makes it a perfect choice for barbecuing.
Wood briquettes are made from sawmill byproducts (such as shavings or sawdust) that are pressed to a desired density and shape by a specialized briquetting machine.
Lighting wood briquettes is not dissimilar to lighting other wood fuels. Use this 4 step process for optimal results:
The terms heats logs and briquettes are often used interchangeably and often refer to the same type of product. Products labelled briquettes tend to be brick-shaped, whereas products labelled heat logs tend to be cylindrical or octagonal in shape.
Yes, you can use briquettes in a wood-burning stove. Simply start a fire using kindling and a firelighter. Once the fire is burning nicely, simply place a briquette or two on top of it.
No, heat logs are not a smokeless wood fuel.
This being said, high-quality heat logs can indeed be used in smoke-free areas, provided you burn them in an appliance approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Yes, sawdust briquettes are perfect for use in wood-burning stoves.
Yes, sawdust briquettes burn hotter than regular firewood. This is because sawdust briquettes are much denser and have a much lower moisture content than even kiln dried firewood.
Lekto Sawdust Briquettes are certified Ready to Burn and can be used in Defra-approved appliances.
After decades of experimentation, wood fuel experts have come to the consensus that a moisture content below 9% is optimal for sawdust briquettes.
Low-quality sawdust briquettes may smoulder due to having a high moisture content. For optimal burning performance, choose sawdust briquettes containing less than 9% moisture.
We strongly advise against burning low-quality sawdust briquettes or improperly stored briquettes with a high moisture content. Burning them will produce a lot of smoke and release creosote.
Yes, you can use Night Briquettes in an open fire.
However, this isn’t the best way of using them, since open fires lack air intake controls.
For optimal results, Night Briquettes need to be used in wood stoves, multi-fuel stoves, chimneys, or log burners.
Night Briquettes are an innovative heating product created by Lekto Wood Fuels. Due to their unique composition, they have an ultra-long burn time of 8 hours.
The name “Night Briquette” comes from the fact that you can light the briquettes before going to bed at night and they’ll still be burning when you wake up 7-8 hours later.
Bark briquettes are good for situations when you need a wood fuel that burns longer and cooler, rather than faster and hotter. This makes them perfect for situations when you can’t or (don’t want to) tend to the fire every couple of hours.
For example, Lekto Night Briquettes, which are made from a proprietary blend of natural softwood bark, have an ultra-long burn time of 8 hours.
BBQ briquettes are pressed pieces of charcoal fines that are commonly used for grilling purposes.
It depends on your stove. Most wood-burning stoves are not made with peat briquettes in mind. Some may even come with warnings telling you only to burn wood in them. In general, you want to burn peat briquettes in multi-fuel stoves.
BBQ briquettes are usually made from pressed charcoal fines.
Peat briquettes are a wood fuel made from peat (aka turf) that is dried and compressed into brick form using special machinery.
Sawdust heat logs are usually made in a two-stage process. The sawdust is first dried to achieve a low moisture content. It is then placed in the pressing chamber of a briquetting machine, where a pressing ram is used to compress them to a desired density and shape.
This article was updated on December 4, .
For more information, please visit Sawdust Briquetting Machine.