Making your own wood pellets

[Anthony Whitesell]

Two things happened in close time to each other. I was cleaning up all the debris from splitting wood (bark pieces and small kindling size scraps of wood) to haul over to the brush pile. This stuff packs too tightly to try to burn, a lot like trying to burn a pile of sawdust. While searching for possible deal on a band saw mill on CL, I happend on an ad for making your own wood pellets. So I got to thinking, I wonder what it would take to turn the debris from splitting wood into material suitable for pelletizing. Further research revealed that I would need a "hammer mill" to pulverize that bark scraps first. I think I know what one is, but I'm looking for confirmation and if possible pictures of the internals of one suitable for turning this bark scrap into material suitable for a pellet mill.

[ray hampton]

rent a shredder or chopper that will reduce leaves and twigs to a smaller size

[Anthony Whitesell]

That's what made them that size, but I think would need to make them smaller.

[John Lanciani]

Just for a point of reference good (premium) pellets have virtually no bark in them, that's why they burn with so little ash. I can't imagine that it is very cost effective to make your own between machinery, raw materials, and labor costs.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Didn't give the ash much thought.

I get about almost 1 yard of waste per stacked cord of wood. Between the bark, wood scraps and sawdust I haul 3 garden trailer loads (36"x36"x12" deep trailer) as part of the day's cutting and splitting. When I'm done for the day I have a stack of wood 10'x5'x32" (I stack on 3 old railroad ties 10' long, to just over shoulder height about 5', and in two rows of 16" pieces, ie., 32"). I have no lack of material if I include the bark in the mix. The chainsaw sawdust may be about the right size, but I know the bark and wood scraps are too big.

Based on some of the reviews, the labor is lightweight compared to making firewood. Mostly just time. I'm still investigating the costs buts that will be balanced against $300 per ton to buy them.

[John McClanahan]

Go to You Tube and search "hammer mill". This video explains how a hammer mill works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gRV4NcccfM

John

[John Lanciani]

Not relevant to the topic but $300 seems a little high. I paid $250 delivered to my door this year for New England Wood Pellet from Jaffrey NH.

[Anthony Whitesell]

That was just cursory pricing. The prices on the bundles that I see around here are $267-299 per pallet. It just seemed like there must be something better that I could do with the a yard of burnable material per cord of firewood than through it in the brush pile. Then again going down this road, I could probably chip the whole brush pile as well and toss it in to the mix. LOL

[Chris Damm]

The machinery to turn sawdust into pellets is quite expensive. I looked into when I had a farm. I could use the machine to make food pellets too. I didn't have near the acreage or a source for sawdust to make it cost effective.
Tractor Supply has wood pellets for $214.50@ ton.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I've found some pellet mills for around $1000 with a decent sized motor. There were the same sized mill with small motors for less, but that didn't make much sense. Now that I'm aware of what a hammer mill is, I wonder if the hammer mill (though they didn't call it that) on the chipper I have would suffice. Otherwise it'd be another $1000 for a small hammer mill to pulverize the splitting scraps.

Anyone know if or how well wood pellet would burn in a regular wood stove? Would they burn right, or like saw dust (ie., where only the top layer burns and the rest just takes up space unburned)?

Tractor Supply is $269/ton here.

[David Weaver]

You need a hammermill and a pellet press, even for small stuff. If you look at videos of the pellet presses, what's put into them is much finer than chainsaw dust. To put the pellets together, you're essentially making them wet and hot so they stick together, if the bits are anything other than very fine (like a coarse powder), they won't stick together unless you put them under extremely high pressure and in something large enough to accomodate them.

I thought the pellet making idea was a good one, too, until I looked at the cost of (even the cheap chinese stuff) the mills and presses, and watched a few videos of people using them on youtube. A small hammermill might only do 150 pounds of material an hour and someone has to be there with it. The small pellet mills then require you to mix whatever came out of the hammermill either in a cement mixer like a batch or by hand with a bucket, and then the pellets that come out need to be put on drying racks.

I haven't seen the stuff done on an industrial scale, but there's probably a good reason firewood processers haven't gone to making pellets instead of continuing to cut and split wood. The process is probably best if you can afford to have huge machinery and the raw input (sawdust from flooring mills, etc) is much closer to what's needed for making the pellets.

If a chinese hammermill is about $3K (and energy intensive and with wearing parts that need replaced), and a pelletizer is about $2K, and then you need to have drying racks, a mixer, and something that makes sure all of the stuff that goes into the hammer mill is small enough for whatever the hammer mill might be....

.. it starts to look like a way to spend $5 to not throw away $1.

[David Weaver]

I've found some pellet mills for around $1000 with a decent sized motor. There were the same sized mill with small motors for less, but that didn't make much sense. Now that I'm aware of what a hammer mill is, I wonder if the hammer mill (though they didn't call it that) on the chipper I have would suffice. Otherwise it'd be another $1000 for a small hammer mill to pulverize the splitting scraps.

Anyone know if or how well wood pellet would burn in a regular wood stove? Would they burn right, or like saw dust (ie., where only the top layer burns and the rest just takes up space unburned)?

Tractor Supply is $269/ton here.

Check the working rate on those tiny mills and presses. There are some small 3 horsepower electric type pellet mills and stuff of the sort on youtube that look like they'd send you to the madhouse trying to get anything out of them.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I was thinking of a two for one. As long as the mills ran without babysitting them (ie., constantly stopping to clear jams or fix pieces), I could feed the scrap from the log splitter directly into the mill, and from the hammer mill into the pellet mill while still splitting the firewood.

There might be a place around here that may have demo equipment. I may check it out.

[ray hampton]

how about using paper scrap to produce the pellets