Hardwood vs Softwood Pellets

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Has anyone out there had a chance to try some of the biomass pellets, like grass pellets in your stoves. I thought I saw that Harman makes a stove called the PC 45 that is set up to burn other types of biomass. I found a website on a Canadian study to develop and build a business using switchgrass and it looked like a company could produce grass pellets and retail them for less than $150/T USD.
Sorry I missed this SmokeEater,

There is a thread here on 3 of the members burning timithy grass pellets. See the link for more.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/grass-pellets-on-cl-gasification-video-too.45829/
 
Im new here and got my stove on Friday of last week. A heatilator ps50. I burned 2 bags of NEWP first, then 4 bags of Insatant Heat from Tractor Supply, then 2 bags of LG granules and then 2 bags of Valfie Ambience from Klems in Spencer MA. The only one that was soft was the LG's and i wasnt real keen on them. I see some of the posts saying they like the Turmans or Barfoot and can also get Maine Woods. Comparing those to the NEWP what do you guys like better. I dont mind the cleaning of the stove as long as i can get the heat. One thing im wondering all the sites i go to say NEWP has a BTU of 8100 but i think on there bag they state 8900 BTUs? Whoes right?
I have a harman p35i and I bought 5 tons of amines choice 100 percent hardwood .. High ash but great heat ..I bought a couple bgs of vermont wood pellets 100 percent soft wood very little ash but about the same heat .. The difference in cost per ton around me is $200 verus $295 (vermont) I don't mind the ash because it doesn't take long for me to clean
 
As far as I can see, the difference isn't between hardwood and softwood in pellets. It's between well made pellets and not-so-well made. Part of that has to do with the quality of the wood input, which has a lot more variables than whether it's hardwood or softwood. So in some cases, where the pellets are a byproduct of fine furniture manufacture, it's the scraps and sawdust from well-selected wood. ...........................love. So I'm not saying those two are the absolute best. But they're damn good. And it's not whether they're hard or soft that makes them so.
GEEZ, all I've learned up here in the sticks is that both hardwood and softwood pellets have been compressed to the same density. Density is the weight (mass actually) per unit of volume. Basically, g/cubic cm or in the English units, lbs/cu. ft. So when you buy a bag of softwood pellets they are compressed to the same (about) density as the hardwood pellet. Wood fiber is wood is wood and so its hardness is the same. Boiled down to simplicity, hardwood pellets and softwood pellets have the same density and so the same volume by weight. 40 pounds of soft equal the volume of 40 pounds of hard. Due to the HHV of the softwood because of the additional resins that have a higher heat content, the softwood pellets will usually have a little higher Btu value per pound than the hardwood. You would have to calculate the price difference vs the energy difference to determine which would be more economical in $/(Btu/lb). I have a Harman boiler and it seems to burn any pellet equally well and I guess I don't pay a lot of attention to the ash content (it's low whatever pellet I use) or the burn temperature, because that does not determine the heat output per pound. I know that different stoves will burn different pellets differently and one needs to know which is most efficient in their own.
 
I actually just found one online source that agrees with you.

Q: What is better Hardwood Pellets or Softwood Pellets?

A: Most people jump to the conclusion that "we have always burned hardwood in our woodstove so hardwood must be better" - Not true with pellets.

The first and most important t............................rom a study done by the wood industry.
A softwood pellet will produce 10-20% more BTU's per pound than hardwood depending on the species and create a lighter ash.


White Oak 8810 BTU/pound
Yellow Pine 9610 BTU/pound


Interesting.
Then, we should watch our prices if we are shopping for Btus and not pay more than the 10 percent or so more for the softwood pellets. Ie. If harwood is $219 per ton and 10 percent of that is $22. Therefore the buyer should steer clear of softwood pellets that cost more than $241 per ton.
 
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