Agricultural Bi-Product Pellet Fuel

Hi, That must represent a helluvalot of fruit & nuts!

I think you'll find your thread will be moved to the Commercial forum in the near future.

We have 1000 tons a week of agricultural pellet fuel made of ag-crop by-products with nutshells and fruit pits.

At 65 gallons per ton, on average, for woody biomass conversion to ethanol, your feedstock is worth about $20 per ton for that use. If those pits have much starch, it is worth more. 1,000 tons is 65,000 gallons per week or about 4 Million gallons per year. With the current incentives for cellulose ethanol, including the current blending credits, you could have E-85 on your own blending terminal dock at a cost around 15 cents per gallon, and could market it all day long at 85 cents, making a 70 cent margin at that price. If you just stay about 25 cents below regular unleaded you can get filthy rich at it. You could sell it cheaper than the biggies can refine it. I respond to oertg@aol.com

>>With the current incentives for cellulose ethanol, including the current blending >>credits... you can get filthy rich at it.

In other words, the government will hand you large amounts of taxpayer $$$ for a technology of questionable value as a fuel.

That is do you get as much energy out of ethanol production from corn as you put into production? Or are you just getting "filthy rich" because the politicians are handing out cash?

At the same time ethanol from Brazil, which is made from sugar and thus is a net energy gain, is taxed by those same politicians to keep it out of this country.

Something is rotting in the midwest and it's not just biomass.

This farce is not only robbing the taxpayers of money, it's helping to drive up the cost of food. No pun intended. Read http://economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10250420

I guess I should start a new topic on "is ethanol a pig in a poke?" but you've hit one of my hot buttons. Ethanol? Bah, humbug!

Just to keep this on topic, I would simply burn the pellets. You'll probably net more energy that way than you would converting the stuff to ethanol and then burning that...

The fact that the government will pay you to do this only says to me that it is an economic loser. If you can take a waste stream and use it to make something else, be it power, steam, or ethanol it is probably a good thing but it should be able to stand on its own merits and not rely on a crutch from the government. Perhaps the government is funding it in the hopes that the new investments will spur on some efficiency gains in the process.

Let's see. The government is paying a subsidy to farmers to produce a product that is not economical and has little demand.

How long will it be before the subsidy is changed so that farmers are paid not to produce?

It already happens in Europe.

They do it here in the States too.

They do it to dairy farmers all the time. If a dairy farmer continues to produce they'll call a madcow disease or something just to shut them down. This happened quit a bit in Arkansas.

In the produce and cotton industry, if there is an over abundance of fruit, they'll pay the farmers not to harvest theirs that year so the prices won't drop too low.

Attention: to all who read this site from Eco-Burn Pellet Fuel:

Let us make it clear to you that our target market is for Industrial and Residential Use! We are not tarketing Biomass Sales. We are open to Distributors of our product. Our website iswww.ecoburnpelletfuel.com.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Crowder, Business Development

530-824-8794 -phone

530-824-8798 - fax

Thank you Rebecca.

I just tried the link that you posted and it says that your server can't be found.

I also tried from the search engine which also is listed under the heading of Sales Flier.

Try again.

We're under www.ecoburnpelletfuel.com and www.ecoshell.com

Orchard farmers in areas that are subjected to freezes use walnut shells and peach pits to burn in the rows between the trees. They get several tons of the stuff to do this.

It is a by-product.

Even if this outfit is paid off, someone else will pick up the ball and run with it.

Just to keep this on topic, I would simply burn the pellets. You'll probably net more energy that way than you would converting the stuff to ethanol and then burning that...

I think I agree with you on the best use of these products; however, one thing I haven't heard anyone address yet is pollution control with burning bio-mass. What are the issues with this beasty. Everyone looks to burn biofuels, but I am wondering about the attendant pollution control issues.

ethanol made from cellulose cost 7 to 8 dollars a gal.

Rebecca, What part of the country are you located in? I'd love a cheap supply of pellet fuel, but the shipping could be an issue. I don't live near any Christmas fruitcake factories, so I don't think your fruit and nut biomass surplus is close to me.

That is a California phone number I think...

We are in Corning, CA, two hours north of Sacramento. Shipping can be affordable if we do it in the right way. Call me @ 530-824-8794. I'm talking about quanity shipping by truckload. Our pellet fuel is bagged in 50lb 3 ply bags. 40 bags to a pallet. You can resell it for a profit. It burns hotter and longer than wood.

Cordially,

Rebecca Crowder,

Eco-Shell, Inc. (rebecca@ecoshell.com)

Please give me your location and price per ton, and or bag. I will forward it to the Yahoo pellet stove group. I am glad to see someone using these resources. The pits might be able to go straight into some stoves. I am wondering what happens to all the almond and olive pits in Calif.

Ron Wagner

Premier Grinders of Walnut Shell

The Crain family has been growing and processing quality English walnuts in the Sacramento Valley since 1960. Over the past forty years, the business has grown to be one of the largest walnut producing operations in the world. With this growth came the need to develop a by-products division. In 1995, ECO-SHELL, Inc. evolved allowing the opportunity to provide a full spectrum of walnut shell products.

Since ECO-SHELL was formed, it has grown and continues to upgrade its facility with the finest state of the art milling and processing equipment. ECO-SHELL is one of the premier suppliers of walnut shell media to industrial markets around the world. As a result of having a substantial in-house raw material supply partner, ECO-SHELL is capable of entering long-term contracts and can guarantee a consistent supply without interruption.

Our facility provides controlled environment storage for all of our raw shell. This is an important aspect of our quality assurance. In addition, our processing and milling operation warehouses are maintained to the highest sanitation standards. We can provide complete documentation on all process controls and Quality Control analysis data of every lot or shipment.

A sister company of Crain Walnut Shelling, Inc.^® Eco-Shell products are bio-degradable, non-toxic, environmentally safe and cost effective for many industrial uses around the world.

Eco-Shell, Inc.
5230 Grange Road
Corning, CA 96021
Phone: 1-(530)-824-8794
FAX: 1-(530)-824-8798

Ron,

Our address is in Corning, CA 96021. Price depends on how far the product goes and the volume ordered. It is less than wood pellets...and state of the art product. Our pellets are manufactured to the Pellet Fuel Institue guidelines for a standard grade pellet. The ash tray will need to be emptied more ofter as compared with the ash from a wood pellet. We feel that this is an easy trade-off for the other benefits gained. You will see that our pellet generates more heat at the vent, upwards of 20-30 degrees. Another benefit of Eco-Burn Pellet Fuel is they burn longer than traditional pellets. Most stoves are engineered to feed fuel at a specific rate based upon other fuels burn time, having said that, it's very important that you begin using our fuel on the slowest feed rate setting on your appliance and adjust as needed. Too much feed in to the burn pot will smother the fire. You'll find that you'll generate more heat at the slower auger speeds thus using less fuel.

Rebecca Crowder & Helen Cantel

Eco-Shell, Inc, 530-824-8794

RON, do you have fuel logs also? WE couldl use fire place logs that burn clean. would like to buy maybe a truck load.

You want Rebecca7. I don't have any. Do a search on fuel logs. I am sure you could get a bulk deal. She doesn't have logs.

Our location is Corning, CA 96021. We are listed under Eco-Shell, Inc. Price is by the pup (10 pallets) $100.00 per ton. Ordering per pallet it is $125.00 for a ton. ( A ton is 50 - 40lb bags.) If you call to order, be sure to mention you saw us on this website under 'Rebecca7'...so we'll remember the 'special' pricing we've quoted for the site.

My Dad uses a pellet fuel heater. He uses about a ton each winter. He might be interested for next year.

I'll send you an email for product information and prices to give to him so he can compare what he's paying.

He lives in Visalia, CA. There might be an issue with delivery canceling out any savings the he might get if your product is less expensive.

I don't think there would be an issue on it canceling itself out....if he order a pup 10 pallets at a time. Then he could get them @ $100.00 per pallet.

Rebecca, Are you selling retail? I have a cottage in Shasta and could also use a ton -- coming from the south I pass your factory on my way. Do you have a website? You could also sell wholesale to the likes of Home Depot or others in Redding and around. But, I'm probably singing to the choir on that... Thanks.

Good Point.

A website would bring in more sales. It would also make it easier for people to order.

Also if people are making a good savings and having good results with your product, they will tell a friend.

Call myslef or Helen Cantrel @ 530-824-8794; we'd be glad to have you stop by, to discuss the product and if you'd like to purchase it ... it's wholesale cost is $150.00 per ton.

Rebecca

I also play WOW. My main is the same as mine here. I'm on Thunderlord.

Yes we will sell retail. It is $125.00 per pallet. 2000 lbs. (of course, plus tax)

hi Rebecca:

I'm interested in how you process the shell into pellets. This might be feasible to do where there is a lot of by-products from fruit/nut bearing trees such as pili nuts.

Will you sharehe process?

thanks and happy holiday

Sorry, how we pelletize is proprietary information.

Shame you are not in Europe, specifically Germany, I have a pellets Oven and would appreciated such a pellet being available at such a cost!!

Would you mind telling us what you pay for pellets? Does anyone use peat ovens in Deutschland any more? I used to have a pellet stove, and still belong to the Yahoo pellet forum. You might find that interesting. I was burning corn kernels last year. They were cheaper than pellets. No more, due to corn ethanol.

Ron Wagner

0.8 US Tons (750kG) of wood Pellets costs around €300....

Does anyone know hows this product would compare to corn pellets?

I'm talking with a farmer right now and he says that, here in Jersey, you can get a 60 lb. bushel of shelled corn for $3.60-$4.00. So that would equate to about $133.00 per ton. Not too far from the cost of these pellets, and I think I heard that corn would burn more efficiently than wood also.

Now, that most Countries, are subscribing to smokeless fuel, the use of Pellets and Fuel-Logs, is increasing Worldwide. The danger is..that all Biomas fuels are not the same, and can include, impurities, like petroleum wax, and tree bark etc., as a binder. The use of pure sawdust, and clean dry biomass is of paramount importance, if we are to counteract "Global Warming". We need to read the product labels...John Olsen,Cree Industries, CANADA

Thank you for your comments John. Our pellets have no preservatives/petroleum in them. They are 100% RECYCLED agricultural bcrop by-product made from nut shells, non-wood and non-forest. We can assure you this.

Rebecca

John,

What is wrong with burning bark? There are no impurities except more ash which is Potash and calcium compounds. We need to look at many types of renewable fuels and some will not be as clean as Premium wood pellets. What we are using as our main energy source (coal, fuel oil, nuclear etc) are much much worse than any renewable fuels. Even petroleum wax is better than coal. Also, premium wood pellets are more and more being made from harvested trees not waste wood from mills. Within the next two years the majority of all US wood pellets will be made from harvesting trees. Don't be such a purist. This country will need to use all kinds of renewable fuels.

Russ

I understand that bark contains a lot of chemicals, and does make smoke. The World is mandating a smokeless regime, and in the Briquette and Pellet business, we strive to make a clean burning product. Petroleum wax is still used by a major producer of Briquettes, but, they have said they are switching to a vegetable binder.I think all extruded fuel in the future will be made from renewable forested areas, (and Biomass from Hemp, and switchgrass, and other plants), the trees which are continually cut, and continually planted. They are doing this in Brazil, and other areas of the World. Bark when used in making Ethanol, makes lots of of chemicals, which are now produced by processing Oil.

johncash,

The impurities in bark are minerals that the tree uses for growth. They are all natural occuring and are not harmful. The bark is eatable (cinnamon is from tree bark) but most bark has no food value. Woodpeckers eat bark as do deer, rabbits and squirrels. As far as smoke, as any fire burns, smoke is caused by moisture and incomplete combustion (old burning systems). We are involved in bringing some Swedish burning systems here to the US and they are burning pellets containing 20% bark in Sweden now and it passes their emission testing which are much tougher than the US's standards.

As far as the waxed logs, I worked with the gentleman who formulated the green logs for Dura Flame. They used by-products from the biodesiel industry. He claimed it was good stuff.

Also bark is not used as a binder. The natural occuring lignin in wood is the binder. What I don't like about bark is that the tree is drug on the ground and gets dirt and sand jammed into the bark and you can't get it all out. If you have very much dirt or sand you really can get CLINKERS.

Russ

You wrote:-

The danger is..that all Biomass fuels are not the same, and can include, impurities, like petroleum wax, and tree bark etc., as a binder.

As these are all (except for the petroleum wax!), bio products, they are far far better burnt than any fossil fuel. They are therefore CO2 neutral and return the same amount of CO2 to the atmosphere as was used to produce them.

In Germany they use water (very small amount) and Roggen Mehl (Rye Flour) to bind the pellets. It is illegal to use anything from fossil fuels as you in the US apparently still do to hold them together.....Its therefore up to your politicians to make proper laws (about everything, not just fossil fuels) to fix such a problem. But even then, burning pellets of ANY sort is better than burning coal or oil!!

It is interesting to note that the USA (Canada & Australia too) only very recently "signed on" to reduce your output of CO2 from fossil sources.......a LONG LONG time after most of the rest of the western world had done so!!!

I believe China is the next biggest country that also needs to sign up!!!

(though I have not researched this, only from memory, sorry!)

Andy,

Some people have used potatoe starch as a binder. Glycerin works also but has some other issues. We used cull navy beans.

The US is having a hard time admitting their C02 emissions. When a US senator has to raise a million dollars a week to get elected he has to sleep with some bad people with money. I hope that we are finally waking up. When we create our own energy we create jobs and economies. It has been to easy in the past to import energy. What we do with coal in the US will be the biggest question. They talk about using electric cars that we plug in to recharge. Where does that electricity come from - COAL. We would be better off burning coal in our cars than to have plug in electric cars. In Europe the goverments moved away from fossil fuels. Our goverment is going to struggle. We are very spoiled in this country. $7 or 8 dollar gas will change our minds - not much else will.

Russ

I liked the post (I do not usually bother to read Guest posts as a rule), but sadly we still have too much coal usage here.....its getting better, but very slowly.....

Please get yourself a proper CR4 logon and join the group, you sound like a good man to have....

I live by the corn capital of the US (Olivia, MN) and have a MS degree in corn breeding (UNL). I have burned corn for 5 years and would burn wood pellets any day if i didn't get my corn for free. I always use a blend of biomass or wood pellets with my corn.

Also, shell corn comes at 56 lbs / bu and is priced in MN now at $4.60 a bushel. If you are buying corn make sure you get a moisture test on the corn!! 12% or less is great and over 15% I would look somewhere else. Some stoves do handle corn better than others. Most don't do very well. The St Croix as a corn burner is hard to beat for the dollar but it doesn't burn other fuels very well and has few features.

Russ

Heat is a huge percentage of our oil use. It could all be done with biomass pellets burned in clean burning pellet stoves, and boilers. More cleanly than the coal plants. They could burn biomass to . In fact it would help their coal to burn cleaner. The governments , federal , state, local , industries, and institutions could all provide leadership by using biomass heating. Wood chips are cheaper, and could be used straight in some situations. The pellet industry is very small, and needs a lot more players. A lot of the pellets go to Europe on ships. They buy a year in advance, and capture the production. Pellet prices could be a lot lower with more competition.

Another approach is CHP combined heat and power stoves, furnaces, and boilers. You could then charge your electric car too.

We need leadership in all segments of society, to end our oil addiction.

I agree clean Biomass is one answer to Heat and perhaps Summer cooking. Most of the World uses Biomass as the ONLY fuel. The Pellet stove needs electricity to operate, whilst the wood stove is self sufficient. A lot of Pellets are now sold to Europe, which is mandating the use, of 20% Biomass fuel by the year 2020. ( so over 12 years there will be a huge increase in biomass supply to Europe). We need to act now to ensure supply, for our own domestic use. I am in the Biomass extruding business, and I apologize for my fervour, but, we must "act" and not have to "react".

If you are in the business, you should learn that a pellets/corn burning stove uses electricity in a relatively small way to allow it to be switched on and off as needed and be therefore even more economical!

Wood burning stoves in Germany will need a "scrubber" at some point to take away the ultra fine dust that wood stoves produce as it is dangerous to health!!! Perhaps the USA has not "discovered" this problem yet?

The use of Pellet stoves for "Heat" can be compromised, as they don't work unless the auger, dropping pellets, into the firebox is powered by electricity. As Pellet stove owners discovered,in a power outage, as happened here in Canada, where we had a huge Ice storm, and all electricity supply was down for a while.

In our extruded wood briquettes (4-6% mc), we have a hole running through the centre.This causes a "venturi" effect, the inside burns very hot, and gives a total burn of the interlocked particles of cellulose and Lignin. Flames and no smoke. Wood when burnt, is usually quite wet, and does tend to make dust, and other products left in the chimney.

Do you have a web site? Briquetting is another great option to pelletizing, and can be done easily with low tech inexpensive methods. Not to say it can't be done better my large mechanized methods. What type of stoves use your products? There is a new company in New England making small bricks of biomass also. There are lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs in the emerging biomass industry. Just gathering it and shipping it to new biomass plants such as Coskata plans is one possibility. Also setting up a power plant of your own, where electrical feed in is mandated. Ranchers need to evaluate how they can increase their income with biomass production.

CreeLog Briquettes ( I named them after Canada's Cree Indians), are made in the DEMECO extruder system we use, by screw compression of the dry sawdust, through a die, and heated to approx 220 Centigrade. The resultant hexagonal log, with a central hole, is then cut to size, and cooled, before shipping.see www.demecosl.com

or write me for a powerpoint file with pics. cree@dowco.com

Johncash,

We are looking at making pellets out of formulaes of different ag residues. My partner is fascinated by briquettes and thinks that it takes less energy to produce. I have heard that pelletizing is cheaper - if you go for the same bulk density. What is your opinion??

My stove could run from a battery and a small inverter. It needs 200 watts to start and 50 watts to run.....not really a great problem to supply!

Would appreciate a reference(s) to your fine dust and scrubber comment. Fine dust is part of the environment, and is created by nature in abundance.

Andy,

You are talking about 'fine particulates' as we would call them. US standards are set and all pellet stoves are suppose to release less than 1 gram/hr. There are sections of the US where no solid fuels are allowed to burn such as parts of Colorado. They are dangerous, I agree, but this standard makes a pellets stove from 12-50 times cleaner than a traditional log wood stove. We in the US still have space, we are not as crowded as most of Europe. I am still amazed that Germany is the size of the state of Oregon and has what 60 million people living there! We don't concentrate our pollution, at least here in the midwest.

At the end of 2004, Germany's population was 82.5 million, nominally the same as 2003. I do not know what the current numbers are.....probably similar!!

Johncash,

We can actually heat and cool with biomass. Campers use propane heat to run their refrigerators. Europe has developed what they call the "Sterling Motor" which is a pellet stove that produces 1 kW of electricity and 30,000 Btu of heat.

Anyone worried about lossing heat in the house when they have a pellet stove can buy an cheap invertor that will take your 12 volt battery from your car or trolling motor and convert it to 110 AC. Dell Point makes a pellet stove that has the battery built in. They truly have an awsome stove. I wish I could afford one.

You wrote:-

Europe has developed what they call the "Sterling Motor" which is a pellet stove that produces 1 kW of electricity and 30,000 Btu of heat.

Could you give more exact details please?

Did you mean the "Stirling Motor?" (Notice please the spelling, it was named after the inventor a parson in Scotland I believe!!) Which will celebrate is 200th Birthday in about 9 years I believe. But it sadly uses a heat source to make rotary power, it does not produce heat per se!!

Spelling has never been my strong point. You are correct. Stirlingmotor is the correct spelling. I imagine they are expensive but maybe the way of the future. As energy prices increase more of these types of ideas will become common place.

Yep, there are no "free puppies".

You did follow me I hope - It uses heat energy (fire or solar for example) and produces mechanical energy (turns a shaft for connection to a Dynamo or similar).

IT DOES NOT MAKE HEAT AS YOU MENTIONED BEFORE!!

If you click on this link, you will see a paper Stirling motor that runs on a hot cup of coffee video......

paper-engine-runs-on-heat-or-cold

This is a picture of the motor. The unit that makes electricity consumes heat energy but what they claimed is that the unit also produced about 10kW of heat also.

we are starting to get together in canada to start a plant to do what you are doing plaese contact me thanks glenn reid 613 354 1349

Good luck. It has a huge learning curve and there aren't very many real experts that know what they are talking about.

Russ