Would you like to learn more about the process of pelletizing before the heating season and make pellets yourself? In this post you will find some useful information!
Nowadays, one of the most common alternative methods of heating is to be able to make your own pellets. This fuel is typically produced from compacted sawdust and associated industrial waste from wood processing. These usually arise during furniture production and in the construction industry. This requires a so-called pellet mill, although there are already machines for private use on the market. This is a more environmentally friendly and often cheaper alternative to traditional heating energy, making it the preferred option in many households. But what needs to be taken into account during the manufacturing process and how can you actually make wood pellets with your own resources? You can find out more about it below.
What should you know before making pellets yourself?
The learning process seems complicated, but if you know the basics, you can make pellets yourself using various biomass materials. However, in order for the production to yield high-quality fuel materials, some specialized knowledge is required. Many people still choose this sustainable solution while demand increasesrenewable energiesconstantly growing. If you are also curious about how the small pieces of pressed wood or biomass are made, here are some facts worth knowing.
Wood pellet manufacturing is a carefully orchestrated process that transforms raw materials into uniform pellets. This process includes steps such as raw material preparation, drying, pelletizing and cooling. The end product can be made from wood, cardboard, paper, straw, wheat, corn leaves and stalks, grass clippings, fall leaves, as well as other forms of certain biomass. More than a century ago, you could make your own pellets using various natural products. People use this type ofFuel for heatingbut only since the 1970s. Below you can read more about the steps required to make it.
What steps can be followed to produce pellets?
Due to their versatility and renewable nature, wood pellets have applications in a variety of areas including residential heating, commercial and industrial heating systems and power generation. They offer a sustainable and cost-effective energy solution that contributes to a greener future. However, each step requires special machines and techniques to ensure the quality and efficiency of the final product.
Prepare the raw material and make pellets yourself
Of course, before you start making wood pellets, you should collect raw materials that determine the quality of the final product. The materials used must then undergo a series of preparations before they can be converted into pellets.
- To cut wood, wood chippers are used to break down the raw material. Such devices can transform large tree trunks, branches or waste material into smaller fragments.
- The size and consistency of the wood chips or wood chips can be adjusted to enable flexible processing.
- After the raw material has been shredded, it can be further processed into the optimal particle size for pelletization. In this step, grinders are used to finely break the wood chips or shavings.
Allow the pelleted materials to dry
The next important step in the manufacturing process is the proper drying of the material used. If the moisture content is too high, it can affect the quality and therefore the efficiency of the pellets.
- If you want to make high-quality pellets yourself, you should ensure that your raw material has a moisture content of 8 to 12%.
- For this step, so-called rotary dryers are used in large commercial pellet plants. There are some alternatives to this, such as hot air dryers or belt dryers.
- Quick dryers are ideal for producing pellets on a small scale or where quick drying is required. These machines use high-velocity hot air to instantly remove moisture from materials.
You can make pellets yourself from the dried materials
After the drying process, the raw materials reach the size and moisture required for production. So the next step is to pelletize the materials. In this phase, the raw materials are converted into compact pellets so that they can fit in pellet stoves and be stored properly. Machines used in this step include pellet mills, which apply high pressure and heat to bind the wood particles together into uniform pellets. There are two types of pellet presses.
- The mills with ring dies have a capacity of over 1 ton per hour and are used in large pellet plants.
- The pellet presses with flat dies have a capacity of approx. 500 kg per hour and are suitable for private use.
- The continuous rotation of the rollers pushes the raw materials through the openings, allowing you to produce compressed pellets yourself.
- A pellet is simply a pressed form of the original material held together by binding agents that occur naturally in the material or are added from another source.
- The heat melts the binders into the material, which, as it cools, acts as an adhesive that holds the pellets together.
- Many materials suitable for this, such as wood, naturally contain lignins, which act as binding agents. This means that the raw materials can be processed into pellets in their pure form without any additives. Other raw materials may require the addition of binders such as vegetable oil.
Allow the resulting pellets to cool
After the pelletizing process, the finished pieces are very vulnerable as they are hot and easily deformed. To restore the pellets to the correct hardness and temperature, they should be allowed to cool down immediately. This is usually done using purpose-built coolers, with counterflow coolers being the preferred option. During this step, a sieving machine is usually used to sort out the finer residue.
- The coolers help to stabilize the structure of the pellets, making them more durable and resistant to breakage during handling and transport.
- A screening machine uses vibrating or rotating screens with different sized perforations to achieve the desired size range. However, this step only exists in commercial pellet plants, although it can also be carried out in your own production.
- Removing particles that are too fine and too large ensures that only high quality pellets are left behind for better energy efficiency.
Final thoughts
With the right machines and some knowledge, you can make pellets yourself even without much experience. However, to get the best possible results, you may need to invest a little more time and money. Due to the different uses, the processes may differ from the actual production in pellet plants. When producing wood pellets for your own use, some of the steps described above can be omitted. For example, the use of a chipper would not be necessary as you can shred the raw materials directly into the hammer mill. You can also save yourself the trouble of cooling and sieving if you can store your pellets in something other than packaging.
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