The Various Grades Of Wood Pellet Fuels

The grade of the pellet fuel you produce has implications on the price you can expect to receive for your wood pellets. It also has implications in terms of which pellet stoves and boilers can actually use the fuel at all. Therefore if you are looking to produce pellets purely for your own needs depending on your pellet burning appliance your raw material may not be suitable. Starting at the top end of the market are the premium wood pellets. Originally developed by the timbre industry in Sweden to create a market and value for their waste sawdust. This same model has now been replicated all over the world. Typically premium wood pellets can be made from hardwoods or softwoods. However to be given a premium grade status the wood must also be almost practically free from bark, to produce an ash content below 0.5%. Now this may represent the raw materials you have, however it may not. There are lower grades of wood pellets, generally referred to as standard grade wood fuel pellets. This maybe from species of wood which will create a higher ash content or from wood that will still has bark. For instance short rotation coppice willow is a wood fuel that has a lot of potential due the fast rate the wood grows. For the first three years the tree is allowed to grow as normal, however is then cut at the base. The willow with then form multiple branches and then every three years an impressive harvest can be collected. However this raw material naturally will produce an ash content around 1-2%. This is therefore classified as a standard grade pellet fuel, and therefore only pellet stoves and boilers which are designed to deal with the fuel can use it. The advantages with producing a fuel from willow coppice is that you are in control of the raw material supply. With premium wood pellets in most cases unless you own a sawmill you do not control the supply of raw material. Therefore the supply of raw material can run short, and this is where standard grade wood pellet manufactures can take advantage meeting the additional market demand.