How Wood Chip Pellets Are Made
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Introduction
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Wood chip pellets, or wood pellets, are produced for use in pellet stoves and boilers. Wood pellets are a natural, absorbent alternative for bedding and litter. Growing concerns for resource consumption are causing more people to shy away from fossil fuel-based products. Wood pellet production continues to grow.
Wood Pellets
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Wood pellets are small, usually no more than 1/2-inch long. They are made from processed sawdust and wood chips that have been dried and formed into pellets. When heated and exposed to high pressure, lignin, the binding component in wood, softens and allows the wood product to be shaped and pressed easily. Typically, there are no additional adhesives or other additives in wood pellets.
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How Made
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A processing plant, like the New England Wood Pellet, LLC, in Jaffrey, N.H., receives truckloads of sawdust and wood chips, known to the processors as "feedstock." David Jones of Mississippi State University and David Harper and David Taylor, both of the University of Tennessee, note in their brochure about wood pellets that the wood used to make pellets is often a wood byproduct or waste wood from a wood-processing operation, such as a hardwood floor mill. The feedstock is first screened to separate the chips from the sawdust. The chips are then ground up before they are added to the sawdust. Processors put the combined material through a dryer and the water vapor is removed. The resulting moisture content is less than 4 percent. The sawdust is then rescreened to separate the larger particles, after which the larger particles are resized in a hammer mill. New England Wood Pellet might opt to put 10 to 20 percent of the material through the burner. All the material is then put through the mill where the pellets are formed by extrusion through a steel die. Afterward, the pellets are cooled and stored for packaging.
Benefits
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Wood pellets reduce the disposal of wastes, since they are a waste product. WoodPelletsGuide.com praises the small size of wood pellets as one of their many benefits. Because they are much smaller than cord wood, they produce less ash.
Some pet stores sell wood pellets for use as lining in pet cages, like those for ferrets or rabbits. Pine pellets are a common replacement for traditional clay-based cat litter. One manufacturer of a wood-pellet horse stall liner, Equi-Litter, recommends its product because pellets are relatively dust free, highly absorbent and compost well with manure.
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