wood pellet machine

[Rob D]

Cheers Plippy,

 

It's [email protected]

[Mr Ed]

The Doctor is in...

 

Pelleting works best as a large scale operation, most systems cost millions. However, with the advent of cheap chinese flat plate mills, the capital cost is dropping significantly for systems.

 

The energy content for pellet is much higher on a dry per tonne bassis. i.e. 2 tonnes of wet fresh wood will compress down to 1 tonne of very dry pellet.

It is most suitable for waste wood applications, but that about perfectly describes most arb arisings.

 

The problem is that to make pellets you need 6mm shredded particles, at no more than 13% moisture content. So you need milling and drying stages = more capital outlay.

 

I did design a complete turnkey plant with a manufacturer giving 250kgs per hour of finished product, for a reasonable cost.

[Rob D]

Thanks doc!

 

So when you say now the cost of a pelleting 'machine' has come down what sort of money are we looking at?

 

I assume the chip waste first needs to be dried.

 

Then this dry chip waste needs to be futher processed into the correct particle size.

 

Then this is the processed into pellets and presumably 1 tonne type bags which can then be stored and sold.

 

So does your machine reprocess the wood to correct particle size then pellet?

[Mr Ed]

Its not a 'machine' so much as a linked process of several machines

Wet chip - goes into hammermill for particle sizing

wet particles - augered through into 28ft rotary dryer

dry particles - into flash dryer

goes into storage silo and metering device

metered product goes into twin chamber flat pellet press

hot pellets discharged onto sieve to remove oversize (returned to press)

sieved product goes into cooling process, discharged into 10kg sacks, weighed and automaticaly sealed. Included in the process were dust control and recovery, all recovered dust returned to process.

 

Consultancy fee in the post

[renewablejohn]

I would be very careful jumping into the wood pellet market at the moment as an awful lot of new pellet capacity is coming on stream with Balkas starting up an £8 million plant in Yorkshire.

On the positive side, what you will soon have is a viable market for woodchip when these big boys start running out of timber.

We in theory have got 60k for a pellet plant as part of the Bio Energy Infrastructure Scheme but at the moment DECC have still not refunded the capital expenditure. (You have to pay for the equipment before the money is refunded 3 months later)

[Mark Bolam]

That's the way I see it John.

 

It would be nice to have an easy disposal method for arisings from endless conifer and willow jobs, or even make a few quid for them!

 

I think as Ed has already stated, it would cost big bucks to go into mass production.

 

It's all looking pretty interesting though.

[Rob D]

That seems a pretty complicated/expensive process for my limited resources!

 

Is there a simpler way of maybe compressing the waste into blocks for people to burn? If you could make bricks out of the waste and then dry/season them like normal logs?

[tommer9]

That seems a pretty complicated/expensive process for my limited resources!

 

Is there a simpler way of maybe compressing the waste into blocks for people to burn? If you could make bricks out of the waste and then dry/season them like normal logs?

 

This guy is a mate of mine, and as a way of getting rid of sawmill waste/ planing waste etc he is in the final stages of setting up a pelleting plant and briquette plant. He would happily answer any questions i am sure, and is extremely knowledgeable.Cornish Wood Fuels

[Mr Ed]

Briquetting uses the same process as pelleting, that is - extruding finely milled dry wood fibres through a die. In the case of briquettes, the fibre needs to be the same specification of moisture and size as pellet feedstock.

 

I have a contact that manufactures briqueting presses, they can briquette anything - including aluminium and steel swarf.

 

I've tried some of their wood briquettes, they were startlingly good, burned long and hot, just like coal.

[Steve Bullman]

i had a sample pallet of briquettes sent over from ireland a couple years ago....they were ok, but very expensive, and a complete nightmare if they got a slight bit of moisture on them. I think its going to be a few years still till anyone other than supermarkets and garages will be able to get away with selling them.