Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
This free guide developed by PelHeat shows what consumers need to know and look out for when buying a pellet mill to avoid low quality products, which are not fit for purpose.
PelHeat provide an online consultation service with over 5 years experience in the pellet industry. PelHeat have experience in the manufacture of pellets and pellet combustion. The Wood Pellet Production Guide and Wood Pellet Stove and Boiler Guide are the two leading online guides on producing and burning pellets. All PelHeat guide customers receive access to a one-on-one consultation service for help with purchasing equipment for making or burning pellets.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction In To Wood Pellets and Biomass Pellets In Why are wood and biomass fuel pellets so popular? 2. The Pellet Making Process So how are wood and biomass pellets made? 3. The Different Types Of Pellet Mill There are various different designs of pellet mill on sale today. Re4. Pellet Mills Sold On The Internet and Through Re-sellers and Retailers The issues with how many pellet mills are currently sold. 5. The Problems With The Most Common Pellet Mills On Sale Today Some pellet mills are just simply not fit for purpose Type 6. What Type Of Pellet Mill Is Right For You? With some many pellet mills on sale, how do you know what to choose? 7. What Makes A Pellet Mill Fit For Purpose? As each pellet mill is different, what makes a pellet mill right for the job? Exactly 8. The Importance Of Knowing Exactly How To Make Pellets Making pellets is a highly skilled process with every pellet mill. 9. How To Buy Pellet Mills At Less Than HALF PRICE! How to by-pass the re-sellers and get the best deal possible. 10. Help With Buying Quality, Affordable Pellet Mills and Pellet Equipment How you can get help buying the right equipment for you!
13
13
consistent quality can produce consistent quality pellets". Part of this consistency is the size of raw material particles used in the pellet mill. Particles,
which are too small or too large, can severally affect pellet quality.
Changes in Raw Material Moisture Content, Pellet Quality and Production Rates
One of the reasons pellet fuel is so popular, is pellets have a moisture content below 10%, and this enables the pellets to burn very efficiently, and produce virtually no smoke during combustion. Pellet production is a high temperature process; the right moisture content will produce the best quality pellets, reduce energy consumption and reduce pellet mill downtime.
Changes in Raw Material Composition and The Inclusion of Binders and Lubricants
In pellet production every raw material behaves differently, and some materials produce quality pellets easier than others. Depending on the equipment used, the composition of the raw material may need to be changed to produce a quality pellets at a reasonable productivity. Changing the composition can include adjusting particle size or moisture content, however it may also include adding binders and lubricants to help produce higher quality fuel pellets.
13
Another adjustment that is not well known to impact on pellet production is the rate of feed into the pellet mill. Adjustments on feed rate, and maintaining a consistent feed rate can make the key difference on how well the pellet mill operates, even if the raw material is perfect.
Conditioning is the pre-treatment of the raw material before it reaches the pellet mill. Conditioning can include specific mixing techniques and the introduction of additional water or steam. Steam can be used to pre-anneal the raw material and start the lignin melting process. Though conditioning can have several benefits, in some cases the benefits are negligible and in other cases it is simply not practical to use conditioning.
Temperature is a key requirement in pellet production. Unless a certain temperature is reached in the pellet mill natural lignin will not melt, and it is not possible to produce some biomass pellets, for example wood pellets. However, if the temperature is too high this can damage the pellet mill, and particular consumables such as the pellet mill die, rollers, bearings and seals.
13
Production The PelHeat Wood Pellet Guide Covers The 10 Steps Of Pellet Production
As you can see from the above information, there is a lot more to making pellets than simply dropping material into a pellet mill. For this reason we produced the Wood Pellet Production Guide to help consumers learn the steps to produce quality pellets from a range of wood and biomass materials. The Guide is broken down into ten steps, as you can see blow
STEP 1 : Raw Material Size Reduction and Particle Size and Its Importance STEP 2 : Process Raw Material Transportation, including Screw Conveyors etc STEP 3 : Raw Material Moisture Requirements and Drying Equipment STEP 4 : Raw Material Mixing with Binders and Lubricants, and When To Use Them STEP 5 : Raw Material Conditioning and Steam Treatment, When and Where Not Practical STEP 6 : Pellet Compression and Different Pellet Mill Designs Advantages and Disadvantages STEP 7 : Pellet Sieving and Required Pellet Fines Removal To Maintain Efficient Combustion STEP 8 : Pellet Cooling to Ambient Air Temperature, and The Importance of Pellet Cooling STEP 9 : Post Cooling Pellet Transportation, How To Move Pellets Without Damaging Them STEP 10 : Finished Pellet Bagging and Storage To Protect From Moisture and Damage
13
13
Pellet Mills Sold On The Internet and ReThrough Re-sellers and Retailers
There are a large number of online retailers and other retailers now offering pellet mills for consumers to produce their own wood fuel pellets. There are hundreds of retailers based around the global who are re-selling pellet mills to home and business owners to produce pellets on a small scale, with some offering larger scale equipment.
The PK/KL series were developed in China, to produce an affordable pellet mill for Chinese farmers to produce animal feed pellets on the farm. Animal feed is made mainly from grass, which is low-density material. The PK/KL series has been designed to specifically to deal with only low-density materials; hence it has not been designed to be able to deal with processing wood into pellets. However resellers are advertising these pellet mills as been able to process wood into pellets. 2. No Pellet Mill Support Provided As many of the re-sellers have no experience in using the pellet mills or making pellets in general, they can provide no support to their customers on how to use the pellet mill effectively. 3. ReMarkThe Pellet Mills are Re-Sold At Huge Mark-ups Despite the fact that the retailers provide no improvements to the pellet mills and no support, they have no problem in re-pricing the pellet mills with huge margins. PelHeat own a PK/KL series pellet mill, purchased directly from the manufacturer. The usual mark up for a re-seller is 30% over the purchase price. However, we have found re-sellers charging between 100% and 200% mark up on the purchase price of the equipment from the manufacturers, which doesnt even include delivery.
13
The Problems With The Most Common Pellet Mills On Sale Today
As discussed in the previous section, the most common pellet mills on sale today are the PK/KL series pellet mills. However, as stated, the PK/KL series was specifically designed to process low-density material such as grass. The problem is most consumers are looking to purchase a pellet mill to produce wood pellets. Wood is a high-density material and performs very differently in the pellet mill compared to processing grass. The fact is it is difficult, but not impossible to produce quality wood pellets with the PK/KL range. However, trying to produce wood pellets with the PK/KL pellet mill does cause possible risk of damage to the pellet mill. The reason for this is wood pellet compression puts far more pressure on the pellet mill components. Therefore this has lead to many reports of the PK/KL series developing cracked castings, broken shafts and broken roller assemblies. This has lead to some claiming that the problem is purely based to Chinese build quality. However, this is an unfair assessment. The PK/KL range was designed to be affordable enough for Chinese farmers, and also was not designed to be able to take the strain generated from processing wood. Also many consumers complain about the fact the pellet mills do not have the power required to process wood pellets, resulting in the motor stalling. This is very true, as the pellet mill is given a power rating to process low-density materials only. This is also due to a gearing issue, which is one of the main differences between a grass pellet mill, and a wood pellet mill, this and the many other differences are discussed more in the PelHeat Wood Pellet Production Guide.
13
The Gearbox
The gearbox for example on the PK/KL range is a car differential, used on most of the cars sold in China. This is a very cheap component in China, and is fit for purpose to cope with the stresses of low density materials such as grass, however when it comes it dealing with the stress of processing wood, the unit gearbox will often fail. The gearbox on the ZLP range of pellet mills is custom made to cope with the stresses involved in compressing wood into pellet form. As you can see from the images to the right, the ZLP gearing is far more substantial. For instance the centre shaft of the ZLP is twice the diameter of the PK/KL pellet mill series. ZLP Gearbox PK/KL Gearbox
PK/KL Gearbox
13
13
13
Help With Buying Quality, Affordable Pellet Mills and Pellet Equipment
Production The PelHeat Wood Pellet Production Guide
The Wood Pellet Production guide has now reached over 2,000 satisfied customers, and continues to be the number one online resource for pellet making help and support. For example Dr Devlin from Dublin University purchased the guide and stated: I purchased your pelleting guide, and found it very useful
13