Hardwood Briquettes

[WFWales]

Kent? Where? Who?

 

I have been looking for a local (Kent) supplier of hardwood briquettes, but without success.

 

Generally buy pallets of 400kg to 1000kg, dependant upon supplier.

 

Liverpool Wood Pellets have one of the better products, burns hot with lots of after-glow, they claim around 5.5kWh/kg. Ash content is rather high for hardwood product, but no sawdust residue as with many of the wood-based briquettes.

 

At equal moisture contents, weight for weight, softwood generally has a slightly highers calorific value than hardwood - see a chart for 0% m/c here

 

You will see that the best poss figs are about 5.5kWh/KG. Pellets(and Briquettes) at 8% m/c would have around 4.7-4.8kWh/kg see page 3 of this Carbon Trust Doc

[Billy68]

will do thanks

[renewablejohn]

Not trying to kid anyone:confused1:I merely wanted to know what sort of margins there are in supplying wholesale. Its my choice to use h/wood because I can get a good supply locally and besides which I set my machine up without all the help and extra funding from third parties:sneaky2: just asking for a little advice seems to be the wrong thing to do:confused1:. At the moment i have enough custom in a 5 mile radius to keep me going. Thanks for your positive input John.

Phil

 

I just get very annoyed with all this hardwood v softwood debate. Its bad enough trying to convince the public that split logs can be either hardwood or softwood the big issue being moisture content but to apply the same rule to briquettes is silly when the maximum moisture content of either hardwood or softwood will be 15% otherwise the briquette press will not work.

Problem you have supplying wholesale is 20% Vat rate instead of 5% direct to joe public.

[tac1]

Renewablejohn

Thank you for precise information - that explains why softwood briquettes I have tried have been of (comparitively) low density with lots of sawdust in the bottom of each bag.

 

Another factor might be that softwood/mixed briquettes are often made from anything that is around, smashed up pallets, logs, whatever, and not from straightforward sawdust. Most of the hardwood briquettes I have seen have come from hardwood floor suppliers, with the feedstock being fine hardwood sawdust.

 

Confusion in the mind of 'joe public' is hardly surprising - a quick look at the net will see several suppliers of hardwood briquettes claiming superiority of product simply because it is hardwood, and not the 'inferior' softwood.

[renewablejohn]

Unfortunately these briquette presses can be and are used to compress nearly anything wood, plastic, paper,steel, so unless you have a specific standard that the briquette complies with you could be buying anything. Trading standards are starting to prosecute companies for selling briquettes that do not comply with the domestic fuel supply regulations but as yet it is very rare and difficult to trace due to the still large quantity of imports.

[gensetsteve]

If you show up at slough power station with bits of mdf in the load they will reject the whole lot. I would imagine these light weight bricks coming out of joinery shops are full of mdf chipboard and glue in alot of cases. I would purchase from someone who controls what goes in.

[Alycidon]

Problem you have supplying wholesale is 20% Vat rate instead of 5% direct to joe public.

 

Providing your retailer is VAt registered that is no issue at all. He reclaims the 20% he paid and pays the 5% he collects.

 

A

[County4x4]

I think another problem is that many small operators are jumping into the market with machinery adapted from other industries, where they are used for waste compaction to cut final disposal transport costs. Unfortunately a lot of these machines - although pretty cheap - operate at much lower pressures and produce relatively soft briquettes. I trialled some from a company in Sheffield who were using an adapted shredded paper compactor, and although their ingredients were all good, the briquettes were very soft and there was a good deal of loose sawdust in every bag. The soft briquettes burned much faster - and we could do 15 kilos easily in an evening. The ones I sell by comparison - we'll use about five kilos tops in the same period.

 

Andy

[treequip]

If you show up at slough power station with bits of mdf in the load they will reject the whole lot. I would imagine these light weight bricks coming out of joinery shops are full of mdf chipboard and glue in alot of cases. I would purchase from someone who controls what goes in.

 

Just to take this off topic for a while, a mate has just put a wood burner in and has access to huge quantities of MDF which he is over the moon with because it lights easily and burns like hades.

 

What’s the issue with the glue, I know the machine dust is a carcinogen, is it toxic when burned?

[renewablejohn]

Just to take this off topic for a while, a mate has just put a wood burner in and has access to huge quantities of MDF which he is over the moon with because it lights easily and burns like hades.

 

What’s the issue with the glue, I know the machine dust is a carcinogen, is it toxic when burned?

 

Totally illegal unless your mate has a waste incineration directive approved stove.