Making your own fuel pellets

[PelHeat]

Hi Everyone

My name is Christopher Scott; I?m a Director of PelHeat Limited, and a designer of the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer. The unit will upgrade different biomass materials including wood, energy crops and waste biomass (cardboard) into pellets.

The key advantage of pellets is that due to their uniform size and shape, they can be automatically fed into the pellet burner, offering convenience similar to that offered by today?s oil and gas boilers.

These pellets can then be used in a pellet stove or boiler. The unit is a small-scale solution with a maximum output of 500kg/h, and as the unit is mobile, is suitable for both an individual or group purchase.

Our belief and company objective is to utilise locally available biomass, convert it locally into pellets, which are then sold back into the local community. This will support local economies, reduce local waste and waste associated costs, and is more friendly to the environment that transporting fuel over vast distances.

Please visit our website below to find out more.

www.pelheat.com

If you have any questions after looking at the information on the website, I will happily answer them.

Thanks

Chris Scott

[mikepepler]

When will it be available?

How much diesel does it burn?

Do you heat the wood to dry it prior to feeding it to the mill? If so how? If not, how does this affect the performance of the hammer mill and the moisture content of the pellets?

How long are the dies in the mill expected to last before they need replacing?

[PelHeat]

When will it be available?

How much diesel does it burn?

Do you heat the wood to dry it prior to feeding it to the mill? If so how? If not, how does this affect the performance of the hammer mill and the moisture content of the pellets?

How long are the dies in the mill expected to last before they need replacing?

Hi Mike, thanks for the questions

Q. When will it be available?

A. As the unit is still in development, I cannot give a date. However we are expecting to have the unit ready for purchase this summer. Closer to that time I will be able to give more information.

Q. How much diesel does it burn?

A. This is affected by several factors, the primary of those is it depends on what raw material you are processing. Basically a material that is denser will put more load/resistance on the engine during pelletizing, increasing power required and thus increasing fuel consumption. So for example wood causes more resistance than straw. Also the engine has a maximum power output of 50bhp, but will not require all that power consistently. Below is a link to the engine specs on the Perkins website, which contains information on fuel consumption.

http://www.perkins.com/cda/files/334144 ... %2007).pdf

The Perkins engine is recommend currently for the use of 20% bio-diesel. We hope that as refining standards of bio-diesel increase this percentage will increase with no warranty implications. So that eventually the engine could operate on 100% bio-diesel, not only making It cheaper for the user, but also much better for the environment, as it would be a true carbon neutral process.

Q. Heat and Performance

A. You are correct heat does affect performance, so the pellet mill is only at maximum performance for a specific raw material when it has reached optimal temperature.

For the first couple of minutes material must be slowly inputted into the pellet mill. As you continue heat is generated in the pellet mill due to resistance between the raw material, die plate and pressing roller. As the pellet mill increases in temperature so does the performance, as the heat makes the raw material softer and more malleable, making it easier to compress the material into pellets.

At the link below is the first guide I have created so prospective customers can understand the pellet process in more detail, and what the capabilities of the PelHeat unit are, and what is required of the operator.

http://www.pelheat.com/Downloads/PelHea ... ellets.pdf
(Either left click, or right click and select ?Save Target as?)

This guide is one of many we will create and make available on the website, to educate people to the process of making pellets, I read a quote somewhere from a wood pellet manufacture who said, ?making pellets is an art not a science? and I completely agree.

Q. Life expectancy of pressing roller and die plate.

A. Because we adopt the 1mm clearance method for pellet production there is no metal-to-metal contact between the pressing roller and template. So the only thing that will wear away the roller and die is the material its self. The roller and die are both made from heat-treated carbon steel, which is extremely hard wearing. They will therefore have a life of hundreds of tonnes of material. We are also committed to providing these consumables at affordable prices.

Thanks for the interest

Chris Scott

[JohnB]

That's interesting. When I was involved in the industry a couple of years ago, producing pellets on a local scale was a problem. I know of one sawmill who bought an old animal feed mill to adapt. We visited with the boss of an Austrian pellet boiler manufacturer who took one look at it and stated that there was no way they could produce usable quality pellets. Sourcing pellets was the big problem with selling pellet stoves and boilers. They're expensive, but very convenient to people used to oil heating.

[mikepepler]

Once you've had at least a year of sales, see if you fit the criteria to apply here: http://www.ashdenawards.org/uk_awards (I work for them). As well as the publicity for winners, there's ?30k first prizes and ?15k second prizes.

[PelHeat]

That's interesting. When I was involved in the industry a couple of years ago, producing pellets on a local scale was a problem. I know of one sawmill who bought an old animal feed mill to adapt. We visited with the boss of an Austrian pellet boiler manufacturer who took one look at it and stated that there was no way they could produce usable quality pellets. Sourcing pellets was the big problem with selling pellet stoves and boilers. They're expensive, but very convenient to people used to oil heating.

Hi John

The reasons for those comments from the pellet boiler manufacture are because there is such massive differences between what grade of pellets stoves and boilers in the market can burn.

Most stoves and quite a few boilers are designed specifically to burn premium quality wood pellets only. A Premium Pellet having very little ash, about 0.3%, to make a pellet of this quality all bark is taken from the wood, and only certain species are used. If you make pellets from the same species of wood but leave the bark on, the ash content will be around 3%; some stoves and boilers cannot handle this level of ash and block up.

With all small-scale pellet production it is not practical to strip the bark of the wood before processing, and I personally don?t believe in it. But what it means is that if you are going to make your own pellets you must be sure that your boiler can handle the ash content.

I personally believe that for the pellet market to be a truly viable heating option of the future and to have a real impact on our carbon out put, more biomass must be utilized. So this includes more species of wood, waste wood, Miscanthus, Reed Canary Grass, Straw and even plain packaging cardboard. We have made good quality pellets from all these material, but not every boiler and most stoves will not be able to burn these fuels.

So small-scale pellet production is very much about what unit you will be burning the pellets in. Burning these fuels requires more maintenance also, but there is significant cost saving and you are heating fuel independent. Which has the following advantage.

If for example the pellet market continues as it, standards relate only to producing premium wood pellets, which will create uniform fuel quality and stable prices, which is a good thing. The problem is that as the market grows and more people purchase pellet stoves and boilers that only burn premium wood, supplies of premium wood will be in short supply. The price of pellets goes through the roof, and consumers cannot burn any other pellets because their boilers are specially designed for premium wood only.

Thanks for the interest

Chris Scott

[PelHeat]

Once you've had at least a year of sales, see if you fit the criteria to apply here: http://www.ashdenawards.org/uk_awards (I work for them). As well as the publicity for winners, there's ?30k first prizes and ?15k second prizes.

Thanks Mike

[JohnB]

Good points there Chris. We were certainly working with products that needed high quality pellets. I installed a pellet boiler in my house that had been removed from a customer's house because of various problems. It worked fine on the pellets I used to start with, but a batch from a different source wouldn't go through the auger properly. In the end it was the last straw with the boiler that made me take it out, and then I found it was a faulty batch of pellets.

Quality and consistency are all very nice in the hi-tech world we currently live in, but it's not an efficient way to use scare resources, and a liability in a lower technology future we might be heading towards. Having been in the renewable energy industry for a while I was feeling that it was mostly about hi-tech solutions that make people feel good, rather than a long term solution. Pellets are great because it's a clean fuel that can be used in automated boilers, but if only high quality fuel from high quality materials can be used it won't be much use when TSHTF.

[PelHeat]

Hi Everyone

Just a quick post to let you know about the blog that I'll be doing from now on. In it will be updates on our own developments, but also lots of information on biomass in general, making pellets, burning pellets, things to look out when buying a pellet burner ....

When the pelletizer is ready for purchase I will encourage our customers to start their own blogs, and link them to the PelHeat blog to provide a huge resource of information on small scale pellet production and use.

There is a link to the blog on the home page of www.pelheat.com

Here is the direct link:

http://s208384296.websitehome.co.uk/

[RenewableCandy]

Interesting stuff but could you just tell us, what kind of wood is best for making pellets with? Does it have to be fresh, dry (as in 'not wet', not as in 'seasoned'), turned into sawdust first, etc?

[PelHeat]

Interesting stuff but could you just tell us, what kind of wood is best for making pellets with? Does it have to be fresh, dry (as in 'not wet', not as in 'seasoned'), turned into sawdust first, etc?

Hi Renewable Candy

The PelHeat unit is equipped with a Hammer Mill, which reduces the material into a uniform size for the pellet mill, for instance 3mm particles. The wood must be no larger than in a chipped form though.

In terms of what wood, different wood species produce different levels of ash, generally young woods will result in more ash than old woods, and bark also increases the ash content. Because of this your choice of pellet burner must reflect your chosen raw material, as not all pellets burners can handle the same levels of ash.

Moisture is also an important factor, but can be controlled by either reducing or increasing moisture with the raw material, or by mixing material that is too dry and too moist together. There are material driers in the market, but we will provide information on how to control moisture with more affordable solutions.

Please read the guide below for more information on making pellets:

http://www.pelheat.com/Downloads/PelHea ... ellets.pdf
(Either left click, or right click and select ?Save Target as?)

Thank you for your interest

[STG]

Isn't it more beneficial to produce the pellets at large plants with high efficiencies and so on?

And because everybody is always discussing the return of energy investment of nuclear on this forum, I would like to know the return of energy investment of these home made pellets. Plus as I see it, this makes your CO2/kJ rise much more and decreases biofuel net CO2 reduction...

[PelHeat]

Isn't it more beneficial to produce the pellets at large plants with high efficiencies and so on?

And because everybody is always discussing the return of energy investment of nuclear on this forum, I would like to know the return of energy investment of these home made pellets. Plus as I see it, this makes your CO2/kJ rise much more and decreases biofuel net CO2 reduction...

Hi STG

Thanks for the questions.

Large-scale production is very efficient; the problem is due to transportation. The biomass generates carbon output during transport to the pellet plant, but worse than this is the transportation of the pellets to the consumer. Most pellets sold in the UK and other countries are coming from Scandinavia, Asia and the Americas, so if you add up the carbon output that is created in transporting these pellets thousands of miles, it increases carbon output.

The purpose of the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer is so local biomass can be processed to produce pellets for the local community. This vastly reduces transportation making it better for the environment and results in cheaper pellets for the consumers. The PelHeat unit can upgrade all types of biomass not just wood, as using only premium wood as large-scale plants do, is not sustainable in the long run.

The Perkins engine that powers our unit can operate on 20% bio diesel reducing carbon out during processing. We hope that as refining standards of bio-diesel increase this percentage will increase with no warranty implications. So that eventually the engine could operate on 100% bio-diesel, not only making It cheaper for the user, but also much better for the environment, as it would be a true carbon neutral process.

Thank you for the interest

[STG]

Ok but the transportation with large ships is still more efficient then to produce separate units for each community. You also have to include your system manufacturing energy and so on if you want to do a really comparative study. Furthermore it's not the mileage that matters, it's the transported quantity per ton greenhouse gas.

I believe that in this case a service model would be more beneficial for the sustainability. Like build one giant plant somewhere central in the UK. Which should be accessible both by boat and truck. Deliver some wood or other biomass and take some pellets back. Compared to your product this plant will operate almost continuously, therefor optimal use of resource and so on.

[PelHeat]

Our unit is a niche product; most people do not wish to product their own fuel, and large scale production is the only option, and I agree for this a central plant in the UK would be ideal.

For those who do wish to produce their own pellets, and have access to the biomass, farmers for example, it gives them heating fuel independence, not influenced by market price changes.