system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How is it that charcoal burns with a hotter flame than the wood the charcoal is made from?
gpt
That is because charcoal is produced in a low oxygen environment under heat. The water in the wood is cooked out and a lot of extra compounds that would rob the carbon of oxygen for CO2 formation have been burned off, too. You're left with essentially pure carbon that is ready to consume all the available oxygen for itself.