Small local pellet maker - giving them a shot.

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turbulator

turbulator

Member
Dec 2, 2011
119
Western PA
My wife's distant cousin is making wood pellets right in the same industrial park my shop is in....at first they were making them for oil field absorbent....but now are making them for burning. I've heard they burn OK but don't throw much heat. I'll find out shortly. To my favor, my Tarm HS 4.0 is not finicky at all about pellets....it'll burn just about anything I put in it. However I have the exhaust and water temps logged running my current brand and will see how these do. Right now they are priced at $180 a ton which is reasonable if they work well. My fingers are crossed anyway. Seeing their setup makes me want to give making my own pellets a shot....

20141114_221505_zps4c264a36.jpg
 
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Very cool. Hard or soft wood, and where/how do they get it? 40 lb bags?
 
Ahh mystery bags....
 
moey said:
Ahh mystery bags....
Click to expand...
No mystery at all. Not afraid to let you see what you get unlike the Pennington golf pencils.
 
mcmaxx said:
Where in western pa.? might want to give them a try myself.
Click to expand...

I believe they are a mix of hard and soft wood. I'll talk to the owner this week - they are literally about 100 yards from my shop. Small operation - their capacity is low at the moment - but I hope they work out and grow.

Location: Greenville PA - North of Hermitage / Sharon in the Reynolds Industrial Park. PM me if you are close by - I'll get you their contact info.
 
I do like that you can see what you are getting with those bags. Good luck to him and hopefully he puts out quality product so pellet burners can rejoice in your area.
 
$180 a ton you can't beat that! Let us know how they work out.
 
turbulator said:
My wife's distant cousin is making wood pellets right in the same industrial park my shop is in....at first they were making them for oil field absorbent....but now are making them for burning. I've heard they burn OK but don't throw much heat. I'll find out shortly. To my favor, my Tarm HS 4.0 is not finicky at all about pellets....it'll burn just about anything I put in it. However I have the exhaust and water temps logged running my current brand and will see how these do. Right now they are priced at $180 a ton which is reasonable if they work well. My fingers are crossed anyway. Seeing their setup makes me want to give making my own pellets a shot....

20141114_221505_zps4c264a36.jpg
Click to expand...
61 bags!
 
chken said:
61 bags!
Click to expand...


Lol - they are 20lb bags. I threw the first pallet on top of the remainder of my edens. The Edens actually burned really well in this boiler. It's unfortunate they closed.

Verdict is in - they burn OK for a budget small operation. However the biggest problem is ash. There has to be 3-4x more ash in these than the others I was burning.

So my question is - why so much ash? Their raw material looked clean and of good quality. Is it the milling / press process i.e. not enough pressure to bind them properly that causes ash? Lot's of fly ash during the burn.
My boiler will burn them, but will require shoveling out 2x a day. The Tarm has large heat exchanger tubes with spiral "turbulators" in them....a twist and shove once a day, and a bore clean once a week will work.
 
turbulator said:
My wife's distant cousin is making wood pellets right in the same industrial park my shop is in....at first they were making them for oil field absorbent....but now are making them for burning. I've heard they burn OK but don't throw much heat. I'll find out shortly. To my favor, my Tarm HS 4.0 is not finicky at all about pellets....it'll burn just about anything I put in it. However I have the exhaust and water temps logged running my current brand and will see how these do. Right now they are priced at $180 a ton which is reasonable if they work well. My fingers are crossed anyway. Seeing their setup makes me want to give making my own pellets a shot....

20141114_221505_zps4c264a36.jpg
Click to expand...
I live in western pa what's the name of their business and where are they located I will tryem out too
 
Be interesting to know how they dry the stuff.
 
I've taken a hard look at an extruder myself but the cost versus payback is too long and commercial pellets are too readily available.
 
BrotherBart said:
Be interesting to know how they dry the stuff.
Click to expand...

I didn't see any substantial drying equipment. In the plants where we put in automated robotic palletizing lines, the drying equipment was enormous.

Could the drying process have anything to do with the ash content? I also noticed quite a lot of dust and fines in the bags....maybe because they are clear and I never really noticed it in bags with logos... Could sifting before putting into the hopper help w/ ash?
 
For oil field absorbent or horse bedding moisture wouldn't be much of an issue. For a pellet stove, big issue.

Yeah the dryers at pellet plants are huge.
 
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