I think if a small pellet mill were cheap enough, and not $3000 , and, I knew I could take any biomass like grass clippings, paper, cardboard etc, and run them through a pellet mill and make my own I would do it, but it takes a lot of biomass to produce one ton of pellets. Im sure if several people got together, and got a pellet mill and had the land, such as a farm and they all pitched in together to crank out pellets for the winter I bet it could work.
The problem I think besides the cost of equipment and the biomaterial, is will this stuff burn in our stoves? I know it wouldnt burn in my Quadrafire unit, its made for wood, and corn, and maybe cherry pits. Im not sure about some other pellet burners out there, I saw the web page about the grass pellet test on several stoves and saw the poor results with almost all the name brands that I know of. The big problem being a dirty stove that needed cleaned several times a day to keep it burning when other fuels were tested. Premium, low ash hardwood seems to be one of the better fuels to run in the stoves today, but even Pellets are getting very expensive, and in a lot of areas burning oil is cheaper, as is natural gas.
I think it would be great if our pellet stoves could burn pellets of almost any material, I think we might see recycled paper pellets, or maybe a hybrid mix of wood, paper, and grass. That really sounds exciting when I think about it, I know it's doable, and Im sure there are some guys out there trying hard to make a stove that would be efficient, clean, and thrifty, because thats the typs of units that would sell in todays high energy cost heating.
I also dont think these Pellet mills are a scam, I've watched several videos, and I can see that they do work, but they sure do cost a lot too. Maybe one day the cost of the mill itself will be within reach of the average home user, who could mow his lawn and rake his leaves, and save them to make pellets out of. The thought sounds nice to me anyway.
