Charcoal is something most of us give little thought to after we have thrown it on our barbecues.

But most of the UK’s supply is imported and often comes from mangrove swamps, rainforests and other endangered habitats.

And its production is in-efficient, often requiring seven kilos of wood for every kilo of charcoal produced.

It is a problem which Matt Williams is now tackling head on, having just imported what he believes is the largest charcoal kiln in the country from Ukraine.

His interest stems from his other business, the Rumplestiltskin Thatching Company, which uses traditional, locally-produced straw for thatching, rather than imported materials from places such as China.

As part of the process, he started coppicing hazel for use in thatching near his home in Wytham in a bid to bring woodlands back into proper management.

Mr Williams, 39, said: “The biggest product I had was waste wood.

“I started making charcoal and people wanted it, but I realised there must be a better way of producing it.So I started scouring the world to find the best technology for charcoal and found there was a far more efficient system in the Ukraine.”

The system can produce up to 300 tonnes of charcoal a year, compared with about 50 tonnes for the nearest UK equivalent.

Mr Williams then persuaded Worton Farms, parent company of the Worton Park gardens and property site, outside Cassington, to invest, along with Simon Fineman, the chief executive of timber firm Timbmet, based at Cumnor Hill.

The kiln cost more than £20,000 and involved Mr Williams travelling to a supplier just outside Ukraine’s capital Kiev, where he arranged for it to be shipped to Oxfordshire.

It has two compartments, with a burner between them.

One takes freshly cut wood and the other holds dry wood from the previous burn, both on trolleys that can be rapidly moved in and out.

The burner first heats the dry wood, and when that starts to turn to charcoal it uses the emissions to dry the freshly cut wood.

At the end of a 12-hour burn, the trolley with charcoal is wheeled out, a trolley of freshly-cut wood is wheeled in and the cycle starts again.

This means that turnaround time is minimised, wood does not have to be dried out before it is turned to charcoal, and the kiln’s efficiency is increased to 3.4 tonnes of wood used per tonne of charcoal produced.

Having set up the Oxford Charcoal Company, full production is set to start next month.

Mr Williams hopes to sell most of his charcoal to tandoori restaurants, garden centres and individual customers.

He is also looking at generating electricity during the process, to be fed into the National Grid.

Other possibilities include the use of charcoal as a pollutant absorber for incinerators and to improve soil.