Pellets from sawdust

[farmiman]

Found sufficient content previously posted. Don't know how to delete. 

[terrifictimbersllc]

Search on  "pellet mill". Or wait and get the 2023 review/update. 

[WV Sawmiller]

    Lots of discussions here. Here is one thread:
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=74261.msg1125983#msg1125983

     I asked long ago after getting contacted by various sellers. I sent them several specific questions like chip size, moisture content, power requirements, etc. and that immediately shut them up. After my research I concluded the only people making money on pellet making machines were the people selling the pellet making machines.

[Southside]

I have a pellet machine line we just got installed for chicken feed production. It's a lot more complicated than it looks and no way this would ever be worth it making a product to burn. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I concluded it was a government run operation where you put more into the process than you get out of it.

   Kind of like the time my son bought a steer calf for $150, kept it and I fed it for over a year and he took it to market/livestock auction and sold it for $135. :

[sawguy21]

We have a local pellet plant that seems to be doing well, the raw material arrives in chip trucks and leaves by rail car. Everybody happy, mills that don't have cogen plants get rid of the waste and consumers have a relatively efficient fuel source. We loved our pellet stove, it cut our heating bills and provided a comfortable warmth. Fireplaces are being forced out by gubermint mandate.

[Magicman]

Paper mill size chips are preferred for a pellet mill.  The chips go through a hammermill and the moisture content must be correct before they get to the pellet dies.  Sawdust does not work.

Successful pellet mills here are government, etc. subsidized or they could not survive.

[WV Sawmiller]

SG21,

  There is no question the pellet stoves work well. My son has one and loves it. The issue is the scale of the equipment and investment and the technology it takes to produce heating pellets om any worthwhile scale. The chips have to be ground to the right texture and dried to the proper moisture content and the proper additives yo bind the pellets. IIRC many times there are government incentives for the factories who produce such pellets.

   I have not encountered any of these small mills that can efficiently convert local sawdust into heating pellets.

EDIT: I see MM covered this same material pretty well while I was typing.

[NE Woodburner]

To the point about sawdust not being suitable for pellets...

Years ago I managed a manufacturing plant that had a decent size wood processing operation (rough lumber to finished product). We processed roughly 80% red oak and 20% maple in our products. All of our sawdust was blown into trailers and shipped to a wood pellet manufacturing plant. They liked our sawdust because it had a mixture of fine sawdust from the wide belt sanders and course sawdust from the various sawing and milling operations. I'm sure our sawdust was mixed with other sources as well. A friend's son worked at the pellet plant and told me they used a small amount of veg oil as a binder in their process.

This was 20 years ago, so things could be different with technology today.

[Southside]

The material is perfectly suitable, the issue is trying to do it with less than say $10 million in start up capitol and sweetheart credits and energy breaks from "green incentives". 

[Magicman]

The only experience that I have is from touring a pellet plant in 2009, when I was president of our local county forestry association.  That plant had to use papermill quality chips, the majority of which they bought from papermills.  The chips had to be 95%+ free of bark.  The chips were sent through a hammermill and then the moisture content was regulated until it met the requirement for the pellet dies.  No sawdust was used.

[Crossroads]

Sort of along the same lines. A friend of mine had a finger joint plant and installed a wood brick press. His bi product was already at the correct moisture content. He did well with it at 1 year for ROI. Then a fan caught fire and burned the entire plant to the ground.