Biomass pellet construction is a rapidly increasing industry, on both a small as well as large scale. The two main uses for biomass pellet fuel are the house heating market, in addition to providing fuel for power stations. Many coal power stations today use wood pellet energy in co-burning by means of coal to lessen the carbon emissions of the factory. This is a very affordable way for the power stations to meet carbon targets without having to invest in new equipment or processes. Other than the home heating market plus power stations, wood pellets are also used for pellet grills and for animal bedding such as horses. To make wood pellets, a series of processes and matter requirements are needed. One of the first key criteria to producing a quality biomass pellet is only a consistent raw matter can make quality consistent wood pellets. The consistent qualities the raw matter requires is a low moisture content as well as small particle size. The raw material also requires a ample proportion of unrefined lignin found in all biomass. Yet certain wood has more unrefined lignin than others. Wood generally has ample natural lignin for biomass pellet construction, yet other wood such as straws in addition to grasses may require another binder to hold the pellets together. Purpose manufactured binders are commonly manufactured from modified corn starch, the binder can also help by lubrication.
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The first process to produce biomass pellets is size reduction. The wood raw material maybe in the form of logs, biomass chip or even sawdust. To decrease the biomass to a small uniform size a combination of a wood chipper plus then hammer mill solution will potential be required. Once the biomass has been reduced to 6mm particles or below, it is then ready for drying. Drying involves either a vent flash dryer or a rotary dryer. The general rule of thumb is that flash dryers are used form small scale production in addition to rotary dryers are used for large scale construction. Flash dryers are cheaper, yet are basic in addition to are not suitable for wood by means of a high moisture content such as virgin biomass. Rotary dryers are more expensive on the other hand they also have more control along with are suitable for virgin wood.
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After size reduction along with drying the particles are then ready for pellet compression. As with drying, there are pellet compression solutions which are more suitable for small scale in addition to large scale manufacture. For small scale production, even abode use a flat die pellet mill is more practical along with affordable. The basic design of the flat die pellet mill means it is cheaper to manufacturer in addition to also maintain as the consumables are cheaper to manufacture. For large scale construction disc die pellet mills are commonly used as they use less electricity. When the sawdust enters the pellet mill, compression owing to the die generates both heat through resistance and pressure. A certain level of resistance is required to help the pellet form, however to much resistance will cause the biomass to become blocked in the die. When the pellets leave the die, they are very hot in addition to before they can be stored they require to be cooled to ambient air temperature. Also before packaging the pellets must be screened to removed fines from production.
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