Would fuel briquette venture be worth it?

So here's my situation, and I would like everyone's advice.
I work at a large sawmill and have access to virtually all the sawdust, planer shavings, and wood chips I could ever dream of. I have been contemplating on getting a sawdust briquette press and getting myself a side business. I am within an hour and a half of St. Louis so that would probably be my avenue for selling. I have noticed on the net that nearly all of the briquette sales are in the northeast. I have been crunching numbers and I don't think I could get the briqs shipped up there and still have any profit left. I have heard pros and cons to burning them. I'm afraid if some occasional users buy them, they will have a lot of trouble getting them to burn correctly or satisfactory hence, not a repeat customer. I think if I could create a market, I could make a decent profit. As long as the product(dust) is dry the machine will basically run itself. So I could work on other things in the shop while the press squeezes out briqs all day long. One part of me says it's a no-brainer. Another part of me is scared my market is too limited and with a fairly high press cost, I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. Maybe I'm just asking for one of you to give me a kick to get going or quite possibly for you guys to put me in my place. With all the environmental concerns, it's an awesome fuel.
Well, that's it for now.
Let me have it.

Thanks for the website webmaster. I get paid to tinker everyday. One of those would be right up my alley. I'm going to say this and I may regret it. I was actually thinking of building my own press, but If I can get one of those and rebuild it for the right money-okay. Yes, I actually build a small press with a would splitter. Putting nearly 20,000psi on sawdust can make a guy a little nervous the first time. It works beatifully. I have a large amount of hydraulic experience and I'm actually an electrician by trade. So it definitely would be plc controlled. I have invested many, many hours looking over the 3 most popular designs on the internet and I have a complete press drawn up with a parts list. It's still pretty expensive. As far as the briqs go, it seems the smaller biobricks are the most favored. I need to study this website you gave me. Now you got me all excited again. I lose interest every 3 weeks or so just because I'm worried if the market is there. Most of the people in St. Louis only burn wood for ambience and such. I assume very few actually do all of their heating with wood. From what I have read briquettes are a little hard to get started and they don't offer the pretty fire firewood offers. So what I'm saying is I will probably get a lot of first time buyers, but unfortunately few repeats. I have burned many of my prototype briqs and they all burned well, but I have wood heat my entire life so starting fires and such comes naturally.

Honestly, I haven't talked with them about this idea yet. I'm am in a higher position in the company so I know they aren't going to just jumping up and down if I pursue this. I will actually be purchasing the dust from them. It's cheap. I developed the idea on my personal time in my shop so they can't claim it was a time conflict of issue. Except sometimes my mind wanders at work so I guess they could bill me for that. This mill is quite large so if it's not dealt with in trailer truck loads they are not very interested. So I'm sure conflict of interest will not be a problem at first when the sidebusiness would not be showing signs of much profit. I do realize if the venture would take off they would start to notice. I'm torn about what to do. Do I tell them and hope they don't steal my idea? Or, do I play dumb? I love working here and I know they wouldn't fire me, but I really don't want to disappoint them either.

I'm not really as concerned as much about stepping on my employers toes as I am my marketability. I have a very good relationship with them so if I begin this venture I will let them know and see what they have to say. You have to remember sawdust is a byproduct, not the major cash source for us. In fact, sometimes it's hard to get rid of. I don't see a pellet mill popping up anytime soon. That's more of a north-northeast localized item. There is one in central mo, but I'm not sure of how they are doing. I actually got the briquette idea after contemplating making pellets. For anyone wanting to learn about home brew pellets there is an awesome website www.makeyourownpellets.com that you should visit. I am not affiliated with them, but I learned a huge amount from their forum. I believe you can make briqs from ag byproducts such as straw. I just don't see it as being feasible. I live on a working family farm. Our cheapest 6x6 bales go for 20$+. Heck, last summer we custom baled and charged 15$/bale. And they only weigh 1200lbs. So with dust go for 15-20$/ton, it just only seems logical. What makes the briqs stick under pressure is a product called lignin. It actually changes to a liquid state under pressure and then rebinds the dust. I'm not sure straw or hay has that. It may have to be some for of mixture with wood. On that pellet forum, they make pellets with them, but they use a product called pellet bond. So I think with that it would be possible. I have thought so much about this. I have talked myself into and out of business more times than I can count. It just seems so logical though. A machine that practically runs itself while you can tinker with something else. The only cost is the initial which I could keep to a minimum by going used or build myself.

I do just want to mention first that I really appreciate all of your opinions. I've been quietly searching this forum for awhile. There is just so much valuable info. I looked at the possibility of pellets. If you don't have 100g up front, you're not going to get much. Also, there is a very large feed mill close by that my brother works for. He has heard numerous stories about how much maintenance the pellet mill is. Part of that is because they will hire just about anybody. But it can't all be human error. I have also read the makeyourownpellets forum from front to rear. There is a huge learning curve, and I just cant see them guys making a profit with the smaller mills. They do have some talent though. One guy hooked a 6 cyl engine to his mill. I enjoy reading that kind of stuff. Anyways, that is why not pellets.
I don't see how I can get away from some form of marketing. I could sell them to the fireplace shops and such. I don't know how it's done everywhere else, but in the midwest a lot of city gas stations sell small quantities of firewood. So that would be another. I would just sell each station a pallet at a time. There's also big box stores. That might not be worth it's time. Who knows. I've never tried to sell lowes or home depot anything. That would be a learning curve itself. Anyways, in some form or another I would have at least market to these guys. I wouldn't try to market to the end consumer other than having some fancy box and fact sheet about how they our good for our earth. I've noticed the guy from biopellets has been on this forum. I wish he'd reply. As far as I know he's the mastermind behind BioBricks. It seems he knows what he's doing. I can't really see that I would be stepping on his toes because most of his products are in the northeast.

Actually, I am near the rail lines. My employer owns a switch. Never even thought about that. Hey, if anyone here is a distributor for any of the other compressed logs, pm me. I have a question for you.
I know this is something I should just do. I need to make phone calls next I guess. Then setup a llc. I checked for patent issues and the only things I found that my pertain to the idea expired. At least, I'm pretty sure. Any of you guys tried to navigate the United States Patent Office site. Can be very time consuming.
Well, I have the whole summer to get the press running and setup a distribution network.
I forgot to mention earlier about the dust shortage at all the pellet mills. Since the housing market tanked, sawmills are closing left and right. The market is just saturated. And it's both hard and softwood mills. If the fuel prices go back up, you'll be talking about 2x4's as something you used to see as a kid. I am so ready to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here I go hijacking my own thead.
Appreciate the time guys. You all just told me what I knew, but needed someone else to say.

Yeah, I have heard the stories about pellet mills. I have no desire for that. Plus, pellets are not exploding in my area. The mill I work for actually made them in the 70's. Funny thing is they were actually cattle feed. Yep, sawdust for cattle. They weren't loaded with protein, but they made a great filler. I have read here that the bricks do much for a fireplace. Now, must of us country boys burn entirely with stoves. So around here it would be great, but most of these guys want to make their own wood so...... Will bricks go over good in the once in fireplaces that only get lit once in a blue moon? Great question, and that's why I posted this thread-to hear your opinions. I am not offended by your post. It's what I want to hear, if it will or won't be worth it.

Spirilis,
I've done a fair amount of research and some prototyping. Here is what I can tell you. To make a briq. with hardwood sawdust, you will need roughly 24,000 psi. With that said, if the end or your briq that you are pressing against is 3x3, then you have 9 sqin. So, you will need 216,000 psi. Hardwood really does require that much pressure to get the lignin to successfully bind. I don't have softwood so I have no idea about it. Now, some presses use heat to help bind the dust so they don't need as much pressure. I don't prefer that. One, it's a fire hazard. Two, your product isn't nearly as dense. Most log splitters don't even put out 70,000psi. So lets say you have an 8" cyl. in your garage. To run it you will need a pump that will run at least 4300psi. Most log splitters top out at 3000psi. What I'm trying to say is that it will take a large cylinder and a good pump. Without 3 phase electric, it will have to run off an engine because you can't get enough hp out of single phase. I had a lot of my design built off of an ruf briquette press. And, I found out they have their infeed prepressure cylinder patented. What confuses me is that some companies have a machines that work very similar to theirs. I don't know enough about patents to know what I could legally get away with. I'm not looking for a lawsuit. If I had access to a machine shop, I would build one. I have all the basic tools. Welder, plasma, etc., but it still would require a lot of machining. The best way would be to make your cylinder part of the pressure rod. To make a reasonable priced custom cylinder would require access to a shop. I have stepped away from it for the time being. I have built some smaller prototypes with scraps rigged on a log splitter. I can make it work. But, it's not in my budget right now. And once it's built, if you find you built your infeed say to small, I would be depressed. I don't really see that being a problem, because with a plc you can change all of your timing and pressure setpoints instantly. But, as we all know there are unforseeable circumstances. If you decide to build one, or just tinker with it, let me know. I have done a lot of the hydraulic math for different combinations and such. Besides, you might have an idea I haven't thought of. I know most of this post is a let down, but if I had more time and 10 grand in my pocket. I would be ordering in parts tommorrow. It was good to see this post again. So does anyone have an idea they would like to share. I'd like to talk some more about this. I think a person could create a market for briqs. It would take a year or 2 to get where you need it to be profitable. Ya gotta start somewhere.