Raw Material

Pellet mill is new energy equipments. The machine can produce different kinds of materials into biomass pellets, which serve as biomass fuel or animal feeds. Biomass fuel have an advantage in its wide raw material resources, from household wastes to agricultural residue. The adoption of biomass equipments can turn wastes into wealth and promote resource recycle. Nowadays, it has become an excellent investment for many people by virtue of the low cost, high added value and policy supports.

What raw materials can we make biomass pellets from?

Generally, biomass pellets can be made from 4 major kinds of raw materials: crop residues, forestry wastes, wood scraps and household garbage.

Crop residues

Agriculture remains as the pillar industry in many areas. The crop residues in agriculture production are immense, including rice husk, rice bran, peanut husk, maize straw, canola straw, pineapple peel, etc. To make full use of these crop residues, we can use biomass equipments to process them into biomass pellets or briquettes for combustion and feeding use.
crop residues for making biomass pellets

Forestry wastes

Forest have always been the resource for fuels. But burning logs for heating is no longer a economical choice, the burn-off rate is rather low, with too much ash and waste heat. Biomass pellets, on the contrary, represent renewable energy and the trend of the future. They can made from forestry wastes such as leaves, branches, bark, fresh grass and turf grass, bamboo, alfalfa, etc. Usually, they need crushing and drying procedure before pelleting.

Wood processing scraps

The leftover wood scraps often come from the furniture and panel processing factory. Saw dust is the best material for making pellets. They can be directly put into pellet mills without pre-treatment. The pellets made by saw dust looks bright and smooth. Sanding wood power is another frequent scrap in wood processing. Because it is too fine and light, we recommend to process it together with wood chips or saw dust. Wood chips can be classified into big and small size. If the diameter is less than 3cm, you can put them into pellet mill directly. Otherwise, you have to crush them it small size for further processing. Besides, wood offcuts are cut off from furniture. They have various shapes, so need to be crushed before pelleting.
saw dust for making pellets

Household garbage

We produce a lot of household garbage every day, like waste paper and plastics. Some solid garbage has combustibility, but hardly any of us exploit it for lack of specialized equipments. With the progress of technology, biomass pellet mill together with other equipments can process them into combustible fuel. This is a effective way to not only enlarge energy resources, but also clean up our environment.

Biomass pellet quality is influenced by raw materials

To make superior biomass pellets, you must control the quality of raw material ahead of time. Here are several criteria for choosing materials.

The size of raw material should be less than 5mm. According to the hole size of the pellet mill die, raw materials need to be crushed into certain sizes. If the raw materials are to large or small, pellet mill may not work well.
The water content of raw materials is from 12% to 18%, or the pellets would be so loose as to crack easily.
There is no need for binder to make pellets. Wood shavings and saw dust contains crude fibers, with certain adhesive ability. Only by pressing can they take shape.
You can mix different kinds of raw materials to make wood pellets. Mixed biomass pellets don’t represent inferior quality. But if you mix straws in wood shavings, the pellets quality is far behind pure wood pellets.
Pellets made by moldy raw materials can’t reach the standard density and heat quantity. You can add other 50% or more fresh raw materials. The pellet quality depends on how much fresh materials you have added.

Superior pellet mill for various raw materials

Having read the content above, you must have know what raw materials pellet mill can process. Good biomass pellets not only come from the high quality raw materials, but also depend on the performance of pellet mill. Choosing superior pellet mill is definitely a wise investment. They can process as many kinds of raw materials as you can imagine. Moreover, they can exploit the maximum value of your materials by producing hard, smooth and glossy pellets.

GEMCO has made efforts to optimize the performance of pellet mill by adopting wear resistant alloy steel processed by vacuum heat treatment. All of our products has got ISO9001, and the engines are certified with CE. We are committed to provide premium biomass energy equipment for customers all over the word.