How To Make Wood Pellets

How pellets are made is a question that more people are becoming interested in. In appearance and principle wood pellets and all pellets for that matter are very simple, however the process to produce the pellets is delicate. A pellet is simply a compressed form of the original raw material. Through a combination of heat and pressure, the raw material is melted and compressed into the pellet shape.

Pellets come in various different diameters, for example wood pellets for stoves are generally 6mm in diameter and pellet boilers can take larger diameters, including 6mm and 8mm pellets. Power stations also use wood and straw pellets in co-combustion with coal, they use pellets between 10-12mm in diameter. Diameters larger than this are regarded as briquettes. Briquettes are similar to logs, however they are not as suitable for automatic feed hoppers.

Pellet Making

Pellet making is a skilled process and different raw materials behave differently. Therefore how to make wood pellets depends partly on the equipment used and the raw material. One of the first things to consider is the source of the wood residue. It must be free from contaminates such as stones and metal, as these can cause serious damage to the equipment, particularly the pellet mill.

The raw material must now be reduced to a small uniform size for the pellet mill or pellet press. The size reduction required depends on the diameter of the pellet produced. The general rule is to reduce the size of particles to less than the diameter of the pellet. The type of die used in the pellet mill will affect the compression ratio, and thus the quality and density of the finished pellet. The material must also be fed into the pellet mill at a controlled rate, if the feed rate is too fast, the slipping force can be exceeded or a build up of resistance could cause the motor to stall.

Pellet Machine

Depending on the type of material being processed different pellet machines have different attributes. For example the speed of the pellet machine and rated power, change depending on the application. For example materials with lower densities and high oil contents require less power during production. So rape cake for example which is a by-product of oil seed pressing has a low density and high oil content. Rape cake can therefore achieve a high productivity and low energy consumption. Wood pellet production on the other hand requires much more power, and in general much lower productivity.

Wood Pellet Production Guide

Wood pellet production is a precise process, it requires the correct equipment and process knowledge, therefore PelHeat have developed this guide on how to make wood pellets. The guide covers the equipment required and basic process knowledge to over come potential issues and increase quality.

PelHeat Wood Pellet Production Guide

At PelHeat we have many years of experience in pellet production, and we provide a pellet production consultation service. The PelHeat guide download will show you how to make wood and other fuel pellets.