DIY Wood Pellet Maker

DIY Wood Pellet Maker

Wood pellets provide us a renewable, clean and economical fuel alternative to both industrial heating and home heating. Due to the low price and plentiful resources, pellets fuel getting more and more popular these years and making your own pellets with home pellet maker is kind of tendency now! Whether or not this is a good idea for you depends on your access to the raw materials needed and the amount of time and money you're willing to invest.

Raw Materials for Wood Pellet Maker

Those in the furniture, building or lumber industries have great access to the waste wood required. Sawdust and wood chips make varying grades of wood pellets, depending on the type of wood. With a wood pellet maker, pellets can be made of either hardwood or softwood. Premium wood pellets, producing the lowest levels of ash (less than 1 percent), are made from white woods with no bark. The low ash content leaves fewer residues in stoves, resulting in lower maintenance. Some stoves or furnaces are designed to burn only premium pellets. Others will also burn standard grade pellets with higher ash contents (between 1 and 3 percent). You also need to consider storage. You need to keep your sawdust and wood chips as dry as possible before processing.

Wood Pellet Maker

Due to the DIY wood pellets demand, pellet maker manufactures now offer a range of personal use pellet maker models. Pellet makers force the raw materials through dies, pressing them into a pellet shape. Heat and/or pressure, combined with the wood's natural lignin, hold the pellet together. Though commercial pellet makers are designed to produce several thousand pounds of pellets per hour, the capacity of personal use pellet makers have a wide range from 60 to 600 pounds per hour. They range in price from $2,000 to $5,000.