Anyone have a briquette maker?

[Bigdanny]

Here in Bulgaria pellets sell for 300 levs( about 140 UK pounds) and more a ton bagged. So I have been looking into getting a pellet machine for a while but price has usually been the stumbling block even the cheaper machines. I am not looking for this to be the backbone of the business but more as a way to get rid of wood waste. But also can use this to heat my workshop and provide some spending money for holidays.

I have been watching t'Bay for a few days and was scrolling thru when I spotted a "Pellit" Machine. I guess the spelling error didn't to help to attract bids but had buy it now. So yesterday I decided to take the plunge so did buy it now. I have spoken with the guy and he says there are a couple of new rollers and dies. so Im very happy. I reckon its worth it at 550 quid after I get it shipped here. If I decide its more hassle , storing the chips & dust etc, new rollers and dies and time taken then I can easily sell it for double the price here.

I think the best way will be to store dust in plastic barrels and chips in the big euro dumpy bags. when I have half a tons worth run the machine, it should make 70-80 kg an hour. I'll probably use one of my guys to keep it filled and tip the buckets into drying trays etc.

If I find I need to make more then can get larger machine but I think this is low risk way to start out. I know I can easily sell the end product as I know one group of expats who are looking to buy 20 tons for this winter.

Alternatives or additives to wood chip could be hay, straw or local to me are a couple of processing plants who press sunflower seeds for oil ( I will find out what happens to the seed husks after pressing), leaves, etc, etc etc. The list goes on.
Yesterday I even saw someone making horse poo briquettes on youtube. :lol:

Using the wet mulch type briquettes is ok for small amounts I guess but wet sawdust being put into a press on a damp windy day doesnt sound too much fun.

Just my two stotinkis worth

Danny

 

[dickm]

Wood pellets OUGHT to be the future fuel, as they are carbon neutral, can be bulk stored, augered around easily and burned in a controlled way in appropriate boilers. BUT, as Bigdanny and others have noted, the kit to produce them is not cheap, and the running costs of the plant in £ and in energy are not low. There are now three big wood pellet producers in Scotland, Arbuthnot down in the Mearns, Puffin pellets up at Banff and Balca (actually an Irish company) up at Invergordon. If you are in their catchment areas and produce enough wood waste they might be an outlet. From what I can gather, the market for pellets still hasn't really taken off, mainly because of the price and physical size of pellet boilers plus stores.

The pelleting kit is actually just the same as that used to produce animal feed pellets, but wood tends to be more abrasive than feedstuffs so the wear rate on the dies is high.

Our local estate has set up a wood chip district heating system to supply heat to a new development and to the village school, using chipped wood waste from their woodland. It's big kit (200kW boiler), and there's no fully automated boilers at less than 30kW output, but again, if the market takes off, chipping is a lot less energy intensive than pelleting. Works well for bigger stone houses which leak heat like a sieve

 

[Hutzul]

My 2p worth is that I started to research my best way of using sawdust as a fuel last year, after getting a gas bill for over £300 for the winter quarter; gas boiler + gas cooking. :x
I looked at pellet stoves and pellet making machines (lots of stuff on youtube), the cost I thought was too much & pellets too small, in my opinion, for a wood burning stove.

I have recently gotten a Dovre stove, and fettled it up and installed it in my home.

I saw a video using a pneumatic ram http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKw-czj1 ... ults_video, and as I have an air compressor decided to use this to my advantage.

To test the theory my first attempts were made on a baseboard about 6" wide using an air ram I got for about £30 on t'bay, using a Pneumatic Hand Lever Valve 5/2 Push / Pull Type for £9. I used a piece of plastic drain pipe for my mould/former, and an old alloy v belt pulley for the business end of my ram. Total cost of pneumatic parts was less than £50, and I was able to make briquettes easily with sawdust.

I put sides on my baseboard and a solid end for t'air ram to push from, this meant I was able to catch and reuse the pva water for later batches.
Mk2 brick maker was made using same air ram & fittings but using 4" soil pipe with alloy pulley that a small tube would fit on the pulleys boss, thus my bricks were compressed with a centre hole, which aids drying out, and also aids burning.

I tried using flour as a binding agent for the wet sawdust, but it creates mould as it dries out, and leaves dark patches on the brick when dry, but these bricks still burn well. I went back to using a dollop of pva as a binding agent.

The wet bricks need careful handling, but I put them on a small drying rack, then put them in t'greenhouse for about 2 weeks, then box 'em up ready for burning.

My final bricks are 4" diameter with approx 1" diameter hole through the centre and about 5" long, they tend to burn for one half hour at least and often more.
I am going to try automate this method a bit more, but I look forward to a warm winter and lower gas bills.

Cheers guys, this is a great site.

 

[dickm]

If anyone is thinking of going into business making wood waste based fuels, it might be worth a look at the DECC consultation document on the Renewable Heat Initiative Domestic payments. It details the proposals for payments to households that install what DECC call "renewable" heat sources, which are basically biomass (though not multi fuel stoves) and heat pumps. How the latter can be called renewable beats me, but in any case, the proposal is for biomass heating to receive a payment between 5 and 7p per kWhr, and for heat pumps to receive payments between 12 and 17p per kWhr.
It's total nonsense on stilts, but it may affect potential markets for briquettes.
May be better training as a heat pump installer