Wood Pellet Heating

There are a variety of uses for the humble wood pellet, including as animal bedding for example. However by far the most popular and growing use for wood pellets is the wood pellet heating market. There are several reasons for this, including the cost of wood pellet heating and the environmental benefits.

Carbon Neutral Wood Pellet Heating

Wood pellets are produced from waste wood residues, mainly from the timber processing industry. The reason wood pellet heating is sold as a environmentally friendly form of heating is because wood is part of the existing carbon cycle. Due to this, burning wood does not placed any additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is true, however it is also important to consider the source of energy used to produce the pellets. For example to make wood pellet heating truly carbon neutral the energy used for making wood pellets should also be carbon neutral and renewable. This could either be from biomass, or from wind or solar electrical power generation. Wood pellet heating can even be carbon negative. The ahs generated from wood pellets is an excellent soil conditioner, partly for plants and fruits which require high levels of potassium and fruits with stones. By putting the ash into the soil is actually capturing some of the carbon from the air that the tree used, and placing it back into the ground. However burning wood efficiently is also very important to maintain air quality. This is where the true advantage of pellets comes in, to burn wood efficiently without generating smoke.

The Cost Savings of Wood Pellet Heating

With large increases in global demand for oil and gas and supply problems the prices have been very unstable over the last few years, and are set to continue to be very unstable in the future. Therefore continuing to use oil and gas as our main sources of energy is no longer sustainable. Wood and other biomass resources are a renewable energy source, so we can always grow more to replace the resources we use. Also, many of the resources used to produce fuel pellets are regarded as wastes from other industries. Therefore the resources have very little value, and means fuel pellets are a much cheaper form of energy compared to oil and gas.

Wood Pellet Stoves and Pellet Boilers

Now, many people may think that of course pellet fuel is much cheaper than oil and gas, however there are disadvantages in terms of high maintenance. This idea is usually due to comparing the idea of burning pellets to that of a traditional log stove. However with pellets this couldn't be further from the truth. As pellets have a uniform shape, size and density they are ideal for automated auger feed pellet burning systems. Pellets due to their high density flow like a liquid, and easily flow through fuel hoppers. Also due to their high energy density a small hopper on a pellet stove can last at least a day and in some cased several days up to a week. As pellets also have a very low moisture content, most pellet stoves and boilers use a hot rod igniters to start the pellet fire on the demand of the thermostat. The pellets will ignite in a minute or so.

The Wood Pellet Production Guide © PelHeat Ltd - Wood Pellet Heating