Pellet mills? anyone with experiance?

Butch(OH) · Mar 9, 2016

Mostly because I need to keep my fingers busy I am looking into the small scale pellet mills that can make either fuel or animal food pellets. Looking at one rated around 300 lbs of pellets per hour, 9" 3 roller. I have a virtually endless supply of saw dust and other wood by products to feed the thing. Sellers of such make it look pretty easy. You power the mill, dump in saw dust and presto! Fuel for the pellet stove. I know that it will take a very long time to pay out which I dont mind. Just wondering how finicky they are in operation? It would seem that moisture content and sizing would be critical?

2underage · Mar 9, 2016

A few people have tried them around here but they soon gave up on the idea. It seems that they had bought machines made in China and they were badly flawed. You may have better luck with the pelletizes made in the US if you can afford one. Happy farming.

Bret4207 · Mar 9, 2016

What I know from talking to the one person I ever met with one is that there is a lot of power used in making the pellets. Where the tipping point between loss and profit is appears to vary widely. At the hobby level....if you could find one cheap it would be interesting at least.

Nick m · Mar 9, 2016

I have a pellet stove. It was cheaper or about the same money to burn heating oil this year per btu. Also, from the consumer stand point, cheap Pellets aren't worth burning. Mine will get very dirty and need cleaning every couple of days if I buy certain brands. Other stoves are more tolerant, but the blends or inconsistent brands don't burn as hot and very inice quality, depending on what they used per batch. I have 1 brand I buy and it is all 100% hardwood out of a floor manufacturer. Just some things to consider if you haven't thought of them.

gene bender · Mar 9, 2016

how are you going to regulate the quality,moisture content,size and then screening to grade and the list goes on and on storage before and after temp control better see the film on how they do it.

wd9garymn · Mar 9, 2016

I worked in a feed mill for 34 years and did the maintenance on several pellet mills,from a 30 hp Sprout-waldron to a 150 hp CPM. When pelleting feed, moisture (steam) has to be added to the product before pelleting to aid in the formation of pellets. The compression of pellets creats more heat so they have to go through a cooler to remove the heat and moisture, then across a shaker screen to remove fines. I saw a pellet mill that was used in wood pellet production that was pretty well beat up with several broken dies in a scrap pile. A die is what the product is pushed through to make the pellets. In my 34 years and hundreds of dies we never broke any,= making wood pellets is one tough operation.

Butch(OH) · Mar 9, 2016

Thanks guys. Amazing how much experience with any topic exists on these forums. Durability of equipment was on my mind. One thing I have found is that there are two types of the flat die mills, one that is built to make feed , the die spins, and one made to run wood, the roller spin. The one that is made for wood costs 2X the feed model. The elcheapo priced mills on Ebay are not made to run wood but the ads dont tell you that.

As I said it isnt about saving piles of money its about keeping my fingers busy. We have a diesel to run the mill that operates on WMO so we wont be spending lots to powerit.

We dont have any dedicated pellet burning equipment at this time but burned some in a basket type affair in our regular wood stove.

Pair-a-dice farm · Mar 9, 2016

(quoted from post at 14:15:33 03/09/16) I worked in a feed mill for 34 years and did the maintenance on several pellet mills,from a 30 hp Sprout-waldron to a 150 hp CPM. When pelleting feed, moisture (steam) has to be added to the product before pelleting to aid in the formation of pellets. The compression of pellets creats more heat so they have to go through a cooler to remove the heat and moisture, then across a shaker screen to remove fines. I saw a pellet mill that was used in wood pellet production that was pretty well beat up with several broken dies in a scrap pile. A die is what the product is pushed through to make the pellets. In my 34 years and hundreds of dies we never broke any,= making wood pellets is one tough operation.

This sums it up very well. I worked at feed mill for 17 years and ran a 300hp mill for 5 of those years. I don't think it would pay off unless you just want something to do and a lot of $$ to burn.

farmerwithmutt · Mar 9, 2016

Just wondering instead of wood pellet how would rye or wheat seed work? Almost the same as far as pellet and an old combine and good to go and grow your own

INCase · Mar 9, 2016

for me natural gas is WAY cheaper than pellets right now.

a few years ago when pellets were $150/ton and Ngas was $1.89ish a therm pellets made sense.

But.. that's the only heat in that room so we still run it but not as much. nice warm winter i haven't even burned thru a ton yet. In years past 2-1/2 tons was probably a record for our house.

Super-H-Mike · Mar 9, 2016

I don't know about wheat or rye, but I tried burning oats in my pellet/corn stove once as an experiment. They burned well enough , but the smell was just awful ! I like the smell of the corn or wood pellets burning however.

Nick m · Mar 9, 2016

We just got natural gas service. Your plan sounds like mine. I'll keep the stove around for backup heat, go going all natural soon.

ss55 · Mar 9, 2016

Wouldn't sawdust burn better than pellets? Sawdust has much more surface area than pellets.

Geo-TH,In · Mar 9, 2016

ss55,
Yes sawdust will burn very well. When I was a kid, there was a furniture factory next door. They had a vacuum system to put all their sawdust in a hopper. The sawdust was then blown past a NG pilot light into a boiler. It burned as cleanly as if they were burning fuel oil. They used the sawdust to dry the wood and heat the building.

A college in Terre Haute heats all their buildings with wood chips they grind up from tree branches the city of Terre Haute and anyone who wants to bring them. Usually they have more wood than they need. geo

farmerwithmutt · Mar 9, 2016

J eld win in dubuque fired there boilers with wood chips from old pallets etc. At one time walnut hollow in Dodgeville had boilers that burned saw dust . They made wood products but there saw dust was bagged and sold they got saw dust from nearby saw mills that green saw dust burned better than dried saw dust

Geo-TH,In · Mar 9, 2016

All the sawdust from the furniture factory was dried.

The wood chips burnt at the college first goes an EPA approved process that turns the wood chips into a combustible gas.

Pellet mills? anyone with experiance?

Butch(OH)

Well-known Member

2underage

Well-known Member

Bret4207

Well-known Member

Nick m

Member

gene bender

Well-known Member

wd9garymn

Member

Butch(OH)

Well-known Member

Pair-a-dice farm

Well-known Member

farmerwithmutt

Well-known Member

INCase

Well-known Member

Super-H-Mike

Member

Nick m

Member

ss55

Well-known Member

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member

farmerwithmutt

Well-known Member

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member

Similar threads