Average Ash content of most pellets ???

[BobMac]

Found a guy almost locally on craigs list,He's making softwood pellets,
early buy is $160.00 ton bag $145.00 bulk super saks.Said he just had them
tested last week, 8600 btu less than 2% ash. Going tomorrow to look at them,
Says there mostly pine if so should be able to smell the pine?Said I could take a bag to try out
Dont think so its too hot now hate to let this price get away,but dont want to buy 3 or 4 tons of junk pellets either.
What do you Guru's of pellets think??? Here's the link

http://flint.craigslist.org/for/2525673636.html

 

[nayslayer]

I thought you want under 1% at least.I'm not sure the pine wouldn't gum things Up

 

[jtakeman]

2% seems high and would definetly effect the average stove. The average that I have seen from my sampling is closer to 0.65% and the PFI spec is less than 1% for the premium grade fuels. I got about 1.2% from burning corn. If he's chipping logs with the bark on you'll get ash contents that high.

I would definetly try them first, 2% would be a struggle even for a multifuel stove. 2x the cleaning involved if your stove would even burn them at all!

 

[Don2222]

Hello

I just learned that the Premium Maine's Choice (Less than 1% Ash) and the new Super Premium Geneva Wood Pellets (Less than 0.5% Ash) come from the same plant in Strong Maine.

I have 2.5 Ton of Maine's Choice that I got from Lowe's last spring for $209 per ton!

So on Geneva's web site they state what makes for Low Ash Content. See below:

From
http://www.genevapellets.com/pellet_quality.html
Quality Assurance Measures

Geneva purchases non-saw mill ready round logs and debarks, chips, grinds and dries the wood fiber into raw material appropriate for pelletizing. It is important to remove all bark and debris before pelletizing because these are the contaminants which cause pellets to produce too much ash and lower heating values. These contaminants also negatively effect bulk density which causes pellets to break down.

During our production process excess dust is collected twice to ensure that the only thing entering our bags or silos is 100% premium grade hardwood pellet fuel.