what is wood pellets and how to make it

Wood pellets are a dense, convenient form of wood fuel that burn well in purpose built stoves and boilers. They are a common sustainable fuel in North America and many mainland European countries but are at an early stage of development in the UK. Most pellets are being made in large purpose built mills usually attached to sawmills. In the UK much of the sawmill bulk co-product that could be converted to pellets has an alternative market but there are a number of smaller businesses (sawmills, joinery workshops and furniture businesses) that produce waste material from a few tonnes per year to a few thousand tonnes per year.

Raw Material

•Softwoods and hardwoods can be pelletted. The throughput (kg/hour) will tend to be less with hardwood, possibly down to half, though this will depend on the die. Also, different softwoods have different pelleting characteristics.

•It can be in the form of off-cuts and other solid timber residues as well as shavings, chip and sawdust. With the possible exception of sawdust, it should all be processed through a shredder and/or hammer mill.

•However, the form of the material (coarse shreddings, fine sawdust etc) can affect the ability to produce a good pellet.