Making Pellets, a solution

[slowzuki]

The small scale only makes sense in my calcs if you have equipment already, a source of material already and time to run it.  I can't make it work small scale spending money on drying or trucking whole logs.

My friend is trying to set up a larger mill, 5 tons an hour I believe and the $ involved is unreal.  He was looking to hire me but I don't know how they will get the money together.

My other idea is from the haying we do, we generally have junk hay that sells for very cheap at the end of hte year.  If it doesn't sell we compost it for 0$.  I would love to pelletize it.  Probably could sell as gerbil feed too hehe.

[Ron Wenrich]

So, how hard is it to dry sawdust on a small scale?  I saw 2 operations that were drying shavings and it didn't take too long.  The one used heat lamps over a conveyor belt.  It didn't move that fast, and he had wire that would turn the shavings.  He then baled it for bedding.  The drying was so it wouldn't mold, more than anything else.  But, he could get it skin dry in a relatively short amount of time.

Another guy had a salamander that he used for heat.  He used a drum to put the shavings in, and had the salamander putting heat right in the middle of it.  He had a small electric motor to turn the drum.  The design was similar to a clothes dryer, which is what he used before he made the drum.  5-10 minutes was all that was needed.

We're only talking about taking out some moisture.  Sawdust has a lot of surface area.  When put in suspension and heat added, it shouldn't take that long. 

As for the dies, the FAQ says about 100-160 hrs/set.

[twobears]

 RON:thats what i was looking for..how to dry sawdust..i wasn,t saying it wasn,t worth it or anything other then it had to be done and i was looking for how it could be done on this scale?? i wonder if a guy could use the hot water heat from the outdoor stove to dry it.maybe,a rotating drum deal with a radiator type deal blowing hot air into it as the sawdust works it way thur the drum.kinda like a cement mixer..but open on both ends.the finished pellets could be on a slow moving convoyer going thur another drum with heat blown into it.

 delbert

[Dana]

Slowzuki, If you cant sell the junk hay,  burn it in an outdoor wood furnace.
Two bales last about 12 hours.

[slowzuki]

Interesting, does it stink the same as regular burning hay?

Slowzuki, If you cant sell the junk hay,  burn it in an outdoor wood furnace.
Two bales last about 12 hours.

[SwampDonkey]

slozuki, has your friend looked to ACOA? I believe some private investors out in the Stanley area are putting together plans and $$ for a pellet operation.

Our forum member Ken has a hand in it. He doesn't live too far from you, out the Royal Road toward Cardigan.

[twobears]

 i was out sawing this morning and thinking about two things.the first how i wanted to build/place my new solar kiln.i also got to wondering if a guy could build some sort of sawdust dryer into his kiln.i wonder if a guy could say build a drum type dryer inside the kiln.say up high next to the roof infront of the fans.you could build it so sawdust got feed into one end from the outside,run thur the drum and was dumped outside the kiln into some sort of storage bin.

 delbert

[Dana]

Slowzuki, The hay smells like something funny is burning. If the furnace is calling for heat, it smokes pretty good until the bale sort of chars or flames over. After that the smoke isn't too bad.

[Ron Wenrich]

I have built several solar heaters by making a box, then putting tin on the inside and putting old storm windows on top.  I've put thermometers in them and have pegged them at over 155°. 

So, now I'm wondering if you can't make something like this and let the sawdust or pellets flow over it to dry them out.  Black tin gets mighty hot and it shouldn't take too much to get the moisture content down to an acceptable range. 

[slowzuki]

I'm not sure if he's gone to ACOA, he doesn't like the gov interfering in private business much and ACOA operations tend to be steered hard by gov.  Too fast of expansion in a push for job creation.  Last I heard he had about half the funding secured.  I think he knows about the stanley mill, a group of them met with european buyers and there is a good business case if the cost of drying the wood and transporting it remains at todays levels.

Myself I'm not sold on the whole log operation.  The engineer in me just hates to see so much energy go into rapid drying.  I know they dry partly by chipping and moving piles around but still.

slozuki, has your friend looked to ACOA? I believe some private investors out in the Stanley area are putting together plans and $$ for a pellet operation.

Our forum member Ken has a hand in it. He doesn't live too far from you, out the Royal Road toward Cardigan.

[SwampDonkey]

An employee of mine is into the BioMass wood gasifier. He has investor interest. He's suppose to be in meetings on Thursday to see if it's a go. Andy Savoie is doing a feasibility study.

Roaches in Grand Falls is going to be producing ethanol from grain and taters. They are using canola in Waterville for biodiesel.

[Max sawdust]

A question I would be interested in knowing the answer to is whether planer shavings can be used right from the dust collector or whether they need to go through the hammermill and become powderized? I would think that if you mix planer output from dried lumber with raw sawdust, you should come pretty close to the 25% value needed.

I just read the FAQ section on the pellet maker site, and it sounds like it worked with planer shavings.  If anything one may need to add a little moisture back in to KD shavings.

Another good idea to follow
max

[Warren]

Just a quick bump to see if anyone has done any additional work with Pellet Pro's equipment in the last two months ?  Or, Is everyone now waiting for the Bio-Mizer ?

Warren

[Ron Scott]

Wood Pellets.A recent supply of wood stove pellets manufactured at the Vulcan Pellet Mill in Michigan's U.P.

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[SwampDonkey]

According to a report in Atlantic Forestry review, there is a lot of interest in starting a pellet industry here, even a major forestry company. There is a big market in Europe, but I can't see them being shipped from here with much of a profit margin. I saw some pellets at a hardware store, I'll have to check to see where they are coming from.

[Brad_S.]

I see they have been adding to their site. The video of making pellets from oak shavings shows them spitting out pretty good, but it would take a lot of hand feeding to keep you warm all winter.

[slowzuki]

There are a lot of pellet mill operations forming in NB.  I can't specify where until it is announced but one producing 3 truck loads (60 tons) a day is about to be built.

I would love to get involved in a small scale but it is a big investment.

[Ron Scott]

I hear that there are now 5 plants here in Michigan. They tell me that the main problem is getting the raw material, clean, dry sawdust.

[Danny_S]

Marwood LTD makes them still I believe. Comfy cosy was the brand name. They were made out of softwood. http://www.marwood.ca/   look under products.

[StorminN]

Bringing this back to the top... has anyone tried one of these Pellet Pro machines themselves?

We generate a few truckloads a day of sawdust... mostly kiln-dried aspen... dust from our band resaw and wide belt sanders (abrasive planers)... it's fine, dry fluffy stuff. Currently, we give it all to a soils place nearby and they mix it with other stuff and compost it all into topsoil... but I've got the feeling it would make great pellets, and it would be cool to make a little money on it if we could.

Does anyone know if pellets for retail sale have to be "approved" or made by an approved manufacturer or anything like that?

Thanks,
-N.