Bulk supply of woodchips

[swoody]

Hi folks,

 

I'm near Llandovery in mid-Wales and looking at installing a CHP plant. My challenge is I can't for the life of me find the cost to buy bulk wood-chips. Virgin is fine, we can dry them, or we could buy thinnings and chip them. At this stage I'm trying to ascertain the cost of about 300 tonnes a year (dry) in various forms so I can assess if the project is viable at all. I'll sign up for the tip site when relevant but at this stage want to work out the realistic cost for secure supply to know if it is a goer.

 

If anyone can help give me a clue I'd appreciate it.

 

Thanks

Simon

[gdh]

8 hours ago, swoody said:

Hi folks,

 

I'm near Llandovery in mid-Wales and looking at installing a CHP plant. My challenge is I can't for the life of me find the cost to buy bulk wood-chips. Virgin is fine, we can dry them, or we could buy thinnings and chip them. At this stage I'm trying to ascertain the cost of about 300 tonnes a year (dry) in various forms so I can assess if the project is viable at all. I'll sign up for the tip site when relevant but at this stage want to work out the realistic cost for secure supply to know if it is a goer.

 

If anyone can help give me a clue I'd appreciate it.

 

Thanks

Simon

Have you talked to Dyfed Powys woodfuels in Llangadog? They'll be able to quote you. 

 

We do a bit but for that amount they would be better value than us I would think.

[swoody]

8 minutes ago, gdh said:

Have you talked to Dyfed Powys woodfuels in Llangadog? They'll be able to quote you. 

 

We do a bit but for that amount they would be better value than us I would think.

I haven’t but I will - thanks for the recommendation.

 

Which of the suppliers are you? I didn’t expect such local knowledge; amazing.

 

Cheers

Simon

[gdh]

36 minutes ago, swoody said:

I haven’t but I will - thanks for the recommendation.

 

Which of the suppliers are you? I didn’t expect such local knowledge; amazing.

 

Cheers

Simon

No problem. I'm Glyn Hormann from Hormanns Firewood, we only do a bit of woodchip, we mostly concentrate on firewood but they do a lot of chip and chipping.

[swoody]

19 minutes ago, gdh said:

No problem. I'm Glyn Hormann from Hormanns Firewood, we only do a bit of woodchip, we mostly concentrate on firewood but they do a lot of chip and chipping.

Small world! Please say hi to Dai for me. You delivered firewood here before we caught up with processing our own. 
 

thanks again for the help Glyn

Simon

[Buccleuch]

If it's a Volta unit (or any type) the specification of the wood chips is critical. Smaller arb type chippers struggle to produce the required quality, and even when using specialised biomass chippers you still have to screen out the fines. A relatively small % of fines/poor quality fuel will soon stuff up your unit, as most owners  found out early on in their ownership (us included).  The specification from Volta is not tight enough - size class and moisture content -  though they wouldn't admit it.