Pelletizer, Small Size, Cost effective

Yes we are blending all in a slurry formula also for animal feed cake.

Made such a machine a number of years back by cutting off about 4" from the closed end of a 55 gal steel drum and welding to the axis if a shaft containing a chain driven sprocket tied to a varidrive motor. When mounted to an variable inclined frame it is possible to provide a disc pelletizer having controllable throughputs and/or residence times.

I have a cornstove. A couple years ago I half-heartedly attepted to make a pelletizer. It was a die-set in a 1/2-ton punch press. It had a conical shape above the die and the punch rammed the material through. I only tried it with sawdust and was able to make pellets. It was fairly slow though.

Jeff Szeibert

I'm traveling now but will hold thread and reply. We are working on just that as you said or words to the effect a biomass pelletizer.

Pelletizers are available in all shapes and sizes, but the ones for fuel pellets are considerably higher pressure units (higher density pellet = more controlled burn) than those for feed.

In any case, there are steps prior to pelletizing, such as grinding all materials down to a homogenous and workable size, drying down to a required moisture content, and adding a binding material, so the pellets have the characteristics you seek, and can be handled mechanically without disintegrating or creating excess problematic dust and crumb that would otherwise gum up the works. This is easier to do with a feedstock that is less varied.

I also think you are going to have to be very careful with content and percentages among the ingredients you describe. Some of them may not burn that well, may produce a high volume of smoke and/or clinkers, and a bad whiff of something stinky or noxious out of your chimney may put your venture in jeopardy, or at least make for some pissed-off downwind neighbors.

But I like where you are going with this, and look forward to hearing more from others and about your progress down the road.

Good Luck!

I was thinking that pine sawdust, and/or any softwood bark would make a good sappy binder for fuel pellets, as well as produce a wonderful aroma when burned.

Heck, if you used cedar bark, you could use a sockful of pellets as an air freshener or to mothproof your closet!

But not so much if you also have meat scraps in the batch. I'm thinking meat scraps, rotten vegetables, bones, etc. are better dealt with by composting.

That said, is there any reason composted material can't be part of the fuel pellet formula? I'm sure the materials would smell better and be easier to grind after being composted. Or use it to fertilize a fallow field of switchgrass!

Carrying the thought further, methane collected from composting might be used as fuel somewhere along the pelletizing process.

Or elsewhere, whatever works. As I read in another CR4 thread recently, the expression "your shite is our bread and butter" doesn't just apply to plumbers anymore. It has long been my belief that human and animal waste will become a significant sector in power generation, with the added bonus of introducing less of it (and/or in a more benign, if not useful form) back into the environment. One thing I am quite sure of, we will never run out of shite!

Thanks for all the good comments and encouragement. We are hoping to locate a small, home sized pelletizer. The equipment should be cost effective for a single family dwelling with a one year ROI. The pellets will be used for heating fuel, cooking, and electrical generation.

There is no concern with smoke, smell, or complete combustion. The temp is adequate for complete 98.6% combustion of virtually all biomass materials including but not limited to the ones mentioned above, grass clippings from the lawn will heat most homes all season. Grain, spoiled seeds, feeds, fertilizers, Leaves, tree limbs, kitchen waste, garbage, waste magazines, newspapers, bones, meat, manure, spoiled fruit, peels, seeds, bark, aluminum drink cans are all reduced to 2 pounds of CO2 and 5 gallons of potash fertilizer per year.

Of no concern is moisture content, liquid effluents, dust, worms, bugs - each of which represents fuel to use. Preferably the final pellet density heavier than water will sink in water although some customers prefer a less dense product for easy lifting of large containers. Preferably the pelletizer will compress into pellet size any biomass material a normal human can lift and load such as fireplace logs, sawdust, shavings, knotty pines, pine needles, johnson grass, milo stalks, hay, roots. No concrete and no heavy metals.

It is permissible to use different "dies" for different products or different pelletizers as required. The motto remains, "if it can be pelletized, it will make energy" "If it is free material, the energy is free"

This begs the question; what are you burning this stuff with? A plasma furnace?

As to the home-size pelletizer, I responded to another thread with the info that I had recieved from an equipment re-seller, that their smallest (2HP) unit was $14,500 used. Clearly, this area needs further development.

What we need is a pelletizer that reduces a (preferably any) solid biomass material into consistent size by volume or weight.

Think how to reduce a solid piece of Firewood, tree limb, sticks into a consistent pellet size. How to pelletize biomass waste of all types as collected directly from the trash can or barn floor, solid kitchen waste collections, lawn grass clippings or field bales of hay, potato peels, leaves and twigs.

Existing pelletizers use more energy than they produce. Existing choppers and grinders procude inconsistent products, strings mixed with chips or sawdust but none produce consistent, feedable size pellets.

Pine cone size is fine. 1/4 inch diameter is fine. Any size in between is fine. A consistent, feedable size is the goal. A corn stove will burn any biomass material that is sized no larger than a pine cone and no smaller than a pellet.

Can anyone please help identify a small machine that will produce a consistent size product of solid biomass material?

Thanks

DR Power makes a series of chipper grinders that will do the job just right. Check out DR Power.