Log Goblins

[Squaredy]

5 minutes ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Sawdust has value to those that need it ?

 

(When I get a spare day) I need to crack on with biomass pellet production - I source the sawdust from a buddy’s mill (waste to him - valuable input resource to me)

 

One mans trash is another mans treasure - tricky bit is joining the 2 up ?

 

I bought this several years ago:

 

https://www.farmfeedsystems.co.uk/index.php/products/mini-press

 

30kg/hr and runs of solar PV array in Summer. 

 

Waste sawdust into Winter fuel ??

Ah yes that is a very attractive use of sawdust.  My main problem is wet sawdust though and whenever I have looked into it in the past, machines like that always state feedstock must be dry.  So then you have the extra process of somehow drying tons of sawdust.

 

My conclusions have always been that for a very small sawmill like mine I simply do not produce the material to justify the investment needed.  I maybe produce 50 tons sawdust per year, so when dry I guess this could make around 35 tons of pellets or briquettes, which I then need to bag up, store in the dry, find customers for, etc.

 

I say bring on the compost toilets....that is a market I would love to supply, but just not big enough yet.

[Peasgood]

55 minutes ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Sawdust has value to those that need it ?

 

(When I get a spare day) I need to crack on with biomass pellet production - I source the sawdust from a buddy’s mill (waste to him - valuable input resource to me)

 

One mans trash is another mans treasure - tricky bit is joining the 2 up ?

 

I bought this several years ago:

 

https://www.farmfeedsystems.co.uk/index.php/products/mini-press

 

30kg/hr and runs of solar PV array in Summer. 

 

Waste sawdust into Winter fuel ??

I wonder if you could put spent apple pulp through something like that. I squash apples and have tons of the stuff. 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

56 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

Ah yes that is a very attractive use of sawdust.  My main problem is wet sawdust though and whenever I have looked into it in the past, machines like that always state feedstock must be dry.  So then you have the extra process of somehow drying tons of sawdust.

 

My conclusions have always been that for a very small sawmill like mine I simply do not produce the material to justify the investment needed.  I maybe produce 50 tons sawdust per year, so when dry I guess this could make around 35 tons of pellets or briquettes, which I then need to bag up, store in the dry, find customers for, etc.

 

I say bring on the compost toilets....that is a market I would love to supply, but just not big enough yet.

I’m in the market for a compost loo at the mo - shower, WHB and thunderbox needed for barn conversion to office / gym / workshop. Shower & WHB will go to grey and on the garden, looking at compost toilet options now. 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

10 minutes ago, Peasgood said:

I wonder if you could put spent apple pulp through something like that. I squash apples and have tons of the stuff. 

Moisture content is the issue. 

 

If the materiel is dry and it has some natural binders (corn starch can be added if not) it should work. 

 

I remember the factory visit - whole place smelled like chocolate because they were running tests on cocoa husks - waste to fuel for Africa. There were also discussions about other case studies - tobacco factory started pelletting their floor sweepings because in pellet form it was inert but as sweepings it was hazardous waste - obvious cost and system efficiencies, and an organic chicken farmer who couldn’t guarantee provenance of purchased feed so made his own from constituent ingredients.  Great machine, takes a bit of fiddling to get the optimum set up but very doable. 

[Alycidon]

I burn about 4 tones of pellets a year,  5 in a bad winter.     Currently £250 a ton, so payback on a machine is around 5 years.    Alas my potential sawdust supplier has just gone bust and I am alergic to sawdust so have to use a facemask when processing logs,  this would I suspect be far worse.  But food for thought.   The only issue I can see is that Farm Feed Systems are a small company, in buisness 19 years yet only worth 5k, so need a second die and they have gone where are you then ?. 

 

Squardy,   As an aside when you come to the end of a pellet making session do you up the level of liquid so that pellets dont set within the die ?.   When the guy stripped the machine out it showed half formed pellets in the die, I had read somewhere some years ago that was really bad news as the pellets then needed drilling out of the die.

 

Thanks

A

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Alycidon said:

, I had read somewhere some years ago that was really bad news as the pellets then needed drilling out of the die. 

That's certainly what happened when they ran the sprout matador ring die machine for the first time at Bridgend as reported to me by my erstwhile co directors who were working for the charity at the time.

[Khriss]

Sprout Matador ring die machine ?? I can only imagine a 4x4 army lorry driving around in circles squashing sprouts.... k

[aspenarb]

Goblins are chomping through  the "summer" logs

 

[aspenarb]

Goblins are still busy here

 

[Mushrooms]

On 14/09/2019 at 09:30, aspenarb said:

Goblins are still busy here