3 Tips About Making Wood Pellets

Wood pellet mills are known to make wood pellets, but not everyone knows what they should know before making wood pellets. If you want your wood pellet mill to run smoothly and produce high quality wood pellets, here are three tips you need to know.

Selecting the right raw materials

Corn cobs, straw, wood or wood processing waste are common raw materials for wood pellets.When using pellet production equipment, both soft and hard woods can be pelletized. But it’s not a good idea to mix them together.

Why?

Different materials need different additives and moisture levels. If you mix soft and hard woods, it’s hard to control how well the pellets turn out.So, when mixing biomass materials, choose ones with similar properties. The same goes for straw types or mixes of straw and wood sawdust.

But if you have to use different materials, make sure they’re mixed in a consistent ratio using a proportioner mill. Then, adjust the additives to get the best results. This way, you can still produce quality pellets.

Use Raw Materials Less Than 6mm

Before you put the wood into the pellet machine, make sure it’s broken down into small pieces—no bigger than 6mm.

Be specific:
If you start with large logs, they need to be split, chopped, and then crushed with a hammer.
If you are using reeds or straw, you will need to shred them with a hay cutter.
If you are using sawdust or bamboo shavings, you can skip the crushing part.

Keep Moisture Below 16%

Wood pellets are made by pressing and binding small pieces of wood together. A certain amount of moisture is needed to prevent the material from burning during the high-pressure, high-temperature process. But if there’s too much moisture, the pellets won’t be as good. When the machine is making pellets, friction generates heat.Meanwhile, if the temperature gets too high, the moisture turns into gas and heat is generated.

Remember these three tips, and you’ll be on your way to making great wood pellets!