Can Wood Pellets Fuel Compete With Oil And Gas?

You may or may not be familiar with wood pellet fuel, however you are most certainly familiar with wood logs as a fuel. So if wood logs can already be used as a source of fuel, what are the advantages to processing wood logs into fuel pellets? There are several benefits, and one of the major benefits is how wood pellets fuel can be used, in automated combustion systems such as automated pellet stoves and boilers.

Unlike logs, wood pellets and other biomass pellets have a uniform size and shape. Pellets also flow like a liquid, and so flow well through a hopper. It is then a simple case of using an auger to carry the pellets from a hopper to the combustion chamber and burn pot. As wood pellets are very uniform, temperature can be accurately regulated by controlling the speed of the auger and how many pellets are sent to the burn pot. To see this process in action, please view the video below in a wood pellet boiler. So other than the fact that wood pellets can be used in automated wood pellet stoves and boilers, what other benefits over logs do pellets have? One of the biggest problems with logs is moisture. When a tree is cut down, it contains around 50% moisture, any fuel with that much water is not going to burn very well, and you can see this from the smoke generated when you burn wet logs. Also, wet logs reduce the amount of energy you can actually achieve from the wood, wasting a lot of fuel. Even so called dry logs still contain between 20-30% moisture. Now if you compare this to pellets which will definitely have a moisture content below 10%. Why is this a definite? Because due to the way pellets are produced, with any more moisture the pellet would not hold together, and would expand and break apart. Please click below for our videos.

 The Wood Pellet Mill Production Guide © PelHeat Ltd - Can Wood Pellets Fuel Compete With Oil And Gas?