biomass boiler

[HertsWood]

Talk to just energy solutions - install a Woodfuel pellet boiler.

Ton of pellets (bagged) costs approx £300 inc vat & produces same heat energy as 1000 litres of burning oil.

Installation will qualify for rhi.

[donnk]

thanks for all the replies. The reason I am looking towards chip and not pellet is I want to be able to produce on site as and when needed. This will be a 20 year investment so upfront costs, although high for chipper, arb kit and boiler, would be paid back over a long period.

 

I am wanting to be as environmentally friendly as possible, planting a 5 acre wood to provide fuel. I can double this size if need be to ensure more than enough to be available once matured.

 

With regards to chip size, the chart below from the forestry commission is what im looking at:

 

 

 

thanks

 

donnk

[Tom D]

Don't buy a chipper it's a huge expense for something you'll only use a couple of days a year.. If you're chipping small diameter wood it will dry nicely in the round, cut one year, chip the next. My machine can chip 50 ton a day, there are others that can do 4 times that..

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Maybe worth a look here for some info on DIY pellet production... Requires access to a consistent source of sawdust but if you can crack that it might be worth consideration?

 

I've got this machine and a pellet boiler, happy to share any info if you'd like.

[donnk]

what would i be looking at cost wise for a chipper ?

[Woodworks]

Just a thought.

 

The amount it's going to cost to buy tractors, trailers, chippers plus a boiler instal you might be able to insulate the farmhouse to the point you don't need much heating.

[Tom D]

By the time you have a tractor, crane, and a decent chipper you are into big money, my setup was £110k you could do it cheaper of course but if you end up hand feeding a small chipper it will be slow and will work out more expensive than hiring someone in.

What size boiler are you looking at? For reference one of my customers is heating a farm house and 6 cottages with a 200KW boiler, he burns maybe 100 ton a year. This costs him about £1500 to chip, it would be less if he did it all at once but he only has space to store about 4 months worth of chip. At that price your payback on a tractor and chipper is going to be a very long time indeed.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

If you are set on chip, have you considered a knife mill to reduce / refine chip from a fairly regular arb chipper down to the spec needed by the boiler?

 

A bit more labour intensive but on a domestic scale probably quite a manageable option.

 

I have a Pallmann Industries knife mill that I picked up at an auction sale when I was thinking along similar lines....

 

Like this but older:

 

PS Series 300 PALLMANN Granulator - Knife Mill

 

Didn't use it in the end as I went down the pellet route - if you think it might be an option it's available for sale at a song!

[donnk]

certainly food for thought. Can ignore plant costs really, i have tractor, telehandler, 360 etc from other business (construction). I will need a method of getting the logs from wood to process. I quite like the look of those hiabs that fit to the tractor roof.

 

 

Reason I am looking at chipper is its a 1 step operation. cut wood, season, feed into chipper job done.

 

Would 15k get a decent chipper to do the job?

 

I haven't approached boiler manufacturers yet as need to build/rebuild the plot first. Looking at putting it in one of the barns so can have a massive feed hopper, the spare heat can keep the plant warm as a bonus!

[Paul Antrobus]

Hi I did have a customer looking to sell his Vermeer biomass chipper, if you would like more info my number is 07879600053 thanks Paul Vermeer Uk