Which is a more environmntally friendly barbaque fuel: charcoal or propane?

Question

By more environmentally friendly I mean which releases the least amount of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is causing the average worming of our planet and a global climate change.

Answer 1

charcoal is a bio fuel, since it is made of trees and not from coal. propane is usually made from crude oil.

Answer 2

I got an idea, do not use either, both are going to be harmful to your Global Warming beliefs. Just eat everything you consume like meat, RAW. That sounds tasty.

Answer 3

Charcoal.

Answer 4

Propane generally burns 'cleaner' in that it gives off little visible smoke.  Charcoal's smokiness comes just from particulate carbon (soot) which in the small scale you're burning it at, poses very little environmental risk- you're not burning at a high enough temperature to be getting any real pollutants like nitric oxides, etc.

The real key when considering climate change is to ask where your fuel came from, particularly the carbon.  Propane was once underground, where it had been out of the carbon cycle for millions of years.  Adding this carbon to the cycle increases the total carbon available, causing global warming.

Charcoal, on the other hand, is made from wood whose carbon was only recently removed from the cycle and you're just putting it back.  While the commercial variants of charcoal may not have the most green production methods, you're still looking at much less NET carbon.

This is always important to remember, for those who want to blame trees for anthropogenic climate change- there’s plenty of carbon in active use right now- trees growing, things rotting, animals exhaling.  This is normal.  The earth is 'used to this'. Grow a tree and then burn it- all the carbon you release was just picked up in that tree- it's a net zero effect.

Fossil fuels like propane, coal, oil, etc, on the other hand have been out of the cycle for a long time, and are essentially new carbon.  It's the additional carbon here that is entirely responsible for manmade climate change.

Answer 5

Hmm... thats a good question... I think both of them are bad.... =/ this is HARD! Propane. Charcoal has smoke in it and is "pollution" i think...

Propane is your answer

Answer 6

propane