Wood Heating And Pellet Mills In Addition To Logs As Well As Chips

January 26, 2010 by Go Green Tips

One of the most common forms of biomass heating used in many homes is the open fire place where they use logs to heat their living room. Some may even have a basic stove in their living room using logs. However these biomass heating solutions only provide sufficient temperature for one room, are not very fuel efficient and require quite a few maintenance to keep feeding the fire by logs plus also clean the fire place of ash. Therefore the main source of heat usually comes from a gas or oil boiler. However by gas in addition to oil prices continuing to rise, alternatives for these heating solutions are most sort after. There are biomass heating solutions such as log or even straw bail burners for large properties. However these solutions are very large in addition to expensive, in addition to cannot be used for individual small properties. Over recent years there has been a growth of wood chips boilers, they are still quite large but can be smaller than log in addition to straw bail burners to generate the same value of heat. It may also be clear that the fuel can be sourced locally, however this often is not the instance.
The main problem by log as well as biomass chip wood heating solutions is moisture in the fuel. Even seasoned biomass logs along with chips still contain around 30% moisture. This moisture lowers combustion efficiency, generates less heat, more ash along with creosote in the pipe. An additional key point is you are paying energy money for water. Importantly also there is a risk that the wood hasn’t been properly seasoned down to the 30%. By means of pellets though, you can be sure that the pellet is maximum 15% moisture, as it is not possible for a pellet for form properly by way of more moisture.

Learn more about Biomass Heating

Pellets also have other benefits that create them ideal for biomass heating. Their uniform shape along with size method that can work well by hoppers. Biomass chips though need some form of agitation to fall because of a hopper to the fire feed system. As pellets are a much higher density their combustion efficiency is much greater as well as also generate less ash to clean.

Read more about Biomass Gasification

Wood pellet manufacture has quite a few steps along with processes depending on your chosen wood material. For case the two key steps before the material can enter a pellet appliance are size reduction as well as drying. The wood must be reduced in size before the material can be compressed into the pellets. Once reduced it must be dried to on average 15% moisture. At this level of moisture the correct balance between lignin melting plus compression can take place. Too much moisture along with the pellet mill cannot reach operating temperature plus you cannot compress a material by way of a high level of moisture. Dryer is a very expensive plus fuel intensive process. Therefore it can be very beneficial to obtain a raw material which is already at the correct moisture percentage. When the material enters the pellet mill it is compressed between the die along with rollers. Under compression heat is generated which melts the natural lignin plus forms the matter in to a pellet.

More information on Pellet Mill Equipment

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