THE “REVERED” Irish peat briquette is to undergo a radical overhaul as Bord na Móna moves toward more environmentally friendly fuels.
The company hopes to produce a carbon-neutral briquette, and the first step is a new blended peat wood briquette already on Irish shelves.
The new briquettes contain a blend of sawdust and peat, with no binders or additives. Bord na Móna says the product will produce the same heat and retain “the characteristic smell of a real peat fire”.
Company spokesman Brian Purcell said diluted briquettes were already on sale in Ireland.
“We have been trialling the various different dilutions of biomass in briquettes. We do actually have 40 per cent biomass briquettes on the market,” he said.
“We are always developing innovative new ideas and concepts which will take us into the future.”
North Tipperary Fine Gael TD Noel Coonan inquired about the fate of the peat briquette at a recent meeting of the Oireachtas committee on the environment.
“What will happen to the revered peat briquette, bearing in mind that they are manufactured in my constituency in Littleton, Co Tipperary, and Derrinlough in Birr?” he asked.
Bord na Móna chief executive Gabriel D’Arcy assured Mr Coonan the future of the briquette was secure.
“The future for the briquette will be as a biomass-type product,” Mr D’Arcy said. “We have a number of products, including a 100 per cent biomass briquette, although that is still in the development phase.
“The future of the peat briquette is a very noble issue. This year, for the first time, we will market a product which is a 40 per cent peat diluted briquette. It is diluted with biomass.”
Mr D’Arcy added that production issues, including a technical water-absorption difficulty, would be resolved during Bord na Móna’s innovation process.