Contract Wood Drying?

[willk]

Briquette: thanks - that is certainly an option in the long-run.

 

I am fairly new to the wood industry so need to keep educating myself. Starting out, I'd have to ensure that I had supply of, and demand for, all the drying capacity which I have before deciding to do it on my own back. All things considered tho, that is a juicy margin and I'd much rather hang on to it myself!

 

Mortimer: thanks - I'll PM you.

 

Will

[cornish wood burner]

Briquette: thanks - that is certainly an option in the long-run.

 

I am fairly new to the wood industry so need to keep educating myself. Starting out, I'd have to ensure that I had supply of, and demand for, all the drying capacity which I have before deciding to do it on my own back. All things considered tho, that is a juicy margin and I'd much rather hang on to it myself!

 

Mortimer: thanks - I'll PM you.

 

Will

A word of warning that margin is not quite so juicy as first appears. I appreciate areas vary but from my experience that wood cost is very slightly low and the chip cost high. Advertised chipping cost does not normally include travelling and you would have some handling and chip delivery costs.

We chip 500 tons at a time and I would like to think we are quite efficient. It costs us about £10/ton for dry chip. The other big hit is loss of weight. Bought in wood will be up to 60% moisture but the end product chip around 18%, so you will lose 42% of the weight of your original investment. There will still be a margin but these are a few things for you to take into account

[briquette_seller]

I know of a guy just south of Bristol who is drying woodchip for £10/tonne for someone else and is erning good money from the rhi. When I spoke to him in September, he was talking about drying their chip for free as the rhi was paying so well!

 

What is he using, drying floor, bed dryer, drum dryer?

[briquette_seller]

A word of warning that margin is not quite so juicy as first appears. I appreciate areas vary but from my experience that wood cost is very slightly low and the chip cost high. Advertised chipping cost does not normally include travelling and you would have some handling and chip delivery costs.

We chip 500 tons at a time and I would like to think we are quite efficient. It costs us about £10/ton for dry chip. The other big hit is loss of weight. Bought in wood will be up to 60% moisture but the end product chip around 18%, so you will lose 42% of the weight of your original investment. There will still be a margin but these are a few things for you to take into account

 

What do you use to dry the chip?

[woodworm]

What is he using, drying floor, bed dryer, drum dryer?[/Q

 

He is using a bed dryer and burning chip to create the heat for it.

[cornish wood burner]

What do you use to dry the chip?

 

The sun and wind. Fairly cheap down here especially the wind. No RHI on it though.

We stack the slab and cord for a couple of years then chip.

[briquette_seller]

The sun and wind. Fairly cheap down here especially the wind. No RHI on it though.

We stack the slab and cord for a couple of years then chip.

 

So where does the £10 per tonne bit fit in?

[cornish wood burner]

The sun and wind. Fairly cheap down here especially the wind. No RHI on it though.

We stack the slab and cord for a couple of years then chip.

 

The £10 / ton was the chipping cost of one ton of dry chip(18% Mc) as opposed to wet 60% mc chip, which if you then dried it would become about 600kg.