With summer now in full swing, many of us are heading outside to do a little cooking by fire. Barbeque season has arrived, and with it, the decision about how to do it in the greenest way possible. Step 1: choosing the greenest fuel.
It's pretty much a two-(hot) dog race when it comes to grilling hardware: gas vs. charcoal. There are a few electrical grills on the market, but they're harder to come by, and, as we'll see below, aren't nearly as efficient as their other competitors. But that doesn't make the decision crystal clear.
The basic issue is this: charcoal is dirtier, but can come from renewable resources; gas has a smaller carbon footprint, but is derived from non-renewable fossil fuels. Most charcoal is a funky amalgamation of things like sawdust, corn starch and lighter fluid; when it's burned, it can result in 105 times more carbon monoxide than burning propane and lots of harmful volatile organic compounds. But, "real" charcoal, also commonly known as "chunk charcoal," doesn't have the nasty additives, and burning it is carbon neutral. So let's look a little more closely at the numbers.
When it comes to carbon emissions, gas-powered grills win in a landslide. Tristam West, a researcher with the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, compared the carbon output of gas, charcoal and electric powered grills when producing 35,000 Btu's per hour, a typical industry baseline. West's calculations showed that gas produced 5.6 pounds of carbon dioxide each hour, compared to 11 pounds for charcoal. As mentioned above, electrical grills produce a whopping 15 pounds of carbon dioxide for every hour at 35,000 Btu's, so aren't the best choice from the carbon perspective.
After all this, here's the bottom line: go for gas. Lump charcoal is becoming increasingly available, but often comes from thousands of miles (or even multiple continents) away, which negates some of its carbon benefits; until it's readily available from local sources, the efficiency of gas wins out. Stay tuned for more tips on green grilling, and happy barbequing!
We try to do everything we can to go green. That is why we don't grill. A gas grill doesn't give the flavor that charcoal does. I can grill on my indoor grill and it tastes the same as it would on the gas grill. So we just don't grill outside, because we know that charcoal isn't the greenest choice. Maybe if we can find this "lump charcoal" we'll grill occasionally, but other than that, my indoor grill is still where we'll grill!
Besides - the tornado rolled our gas grill, and Rick still hasn't decided whether it's salvageable or not - but we don't seem to miss it, so there ya go...
4 comments:
I use my grill pan inside instead of firing up the gas grill. My husband got so he doesn't like the taste of food on the grill.
Yes, for one thing it just doesn't taste any different than grilling indoors... and it has sort of an aftertaste, doesn't it?
What about wood? If you look at my firepit...
http://ksborn.blogspot.com/2007/09/last-hurrah-of-summer.html
...I have a grill that hangs from the three hooks around the edge. So far I've only cooked foil wrapped potatoes on it. Would this be better or is the carbon footprint high for burning wood? I've got plenty of wood to burn now.
Well, wood wouldn't contain coal dust and sodium nitrate like charcoal... but if someone chops down trees just for the sole purpose of burning it, that's about as "un-green" as you can get.. I'm sure you don't go out and chop down trees - but someone else is if it's wood you've bought... but if it's "recycled" from something else, or "downed wood" like what we burn, I think it would be a bit healthier for your food than charcoal, anyway.
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