ihookem
Gold Member
Maybe you could mix drain oil or old veggy oil with the dust so it acts like moisture, then just burn it with the oil still in it.
charlz said:How long is 'quickly' do you think? every ton of product? every 10 tons? Certainly a cost factor to be added in. I noticed both places have the dies advertised so I assumed you would likely need a spare set on hand.
What kind of pellet stove are you getting? I have researched a little and most pellet stove manufacturers it seems do not recommend grass pellets. Do you know if Sheburne Farms has actually used any grass pellets other than a few test days?Kendrick said:Best source for pellets is switch grass/hay field i was planning on using somthing like soy beans for a binding agent. I also have a maple house and all the sawdust from there I was hoping to include. look to waste first then to raw. making pellets from wood wouldent be a effective solution even the current stock is all sawdust like byproducts from lumber mills.
I am getting a pellet stove that can burn pretty much any thing that is dry and goes through the auger.
Shelburne Farms Tests Grass Pellet Heat
RonMar said:So I am guessing that the PTO version at Pellet Pro has a planetary gearbox on the input as it has the same pound per hour rateing with only a 540RPM input. It is a small pic, but if it is a planetary gearbox in that pic of the PTO model, it sure is a small one.
RonMar said:I could see a neat little 3PH assembly with both onboard. You drop sticks or chips from your chipper, or hay/grass into one chute, and get pellets out the other
RonMar said:You will then of course have to cool and dry the pellets afterward...
charlz said:I guess you could also use those fabric feed bags that handle 1000 or 2000lbs if your tractor could handle it.
charlz said:It would appear all the gears are in the lower portion of the unit. Perhaps they just have to change out those gears to make it take a 540rpm input? I don't know if there is enough space in there? Wouldn't this effectively reduce the horsepower getting to the press portion though? Not sure if I could run one with my 16hp b7100 or not.
Yes, probably a factor of moisture and also of mill speed. You squeeze anything it gets hot though from compression and from friction passing thru the dies. I think they need a certain ammount of moisture to form a good pellet though, so even if the source material is dry, I think they may need a final dry after pelletized.charlz said:It would seem that drying the source material, if required, would be the biggest and most expensive part of the challenge.
there is a video on youtube that looks like it is one of these mills, those pellets look very hot coming out. In the video on the PelletPros site those pellets do not look nearly as hot. I wonder if that is a factor of input material moisture?
charlz said:Next trick is storing the pellets. By my calculations you would need about 4.5 (55gallon) drums per ton. Drums would be easy to move around with the tractor. I guess you could also use those fabric feed bags that handle 1000 or 2000lbs if your tractor could handle it.
I wonder how well the pellets hold up mechanically? Obviously the less you handle them the better but you wouldn't want them to turn back into sawdust in the stove.
RonMar said:Yes, probably a factor of moisture and also of mill speed. You squeeze anything it gets hot though from compression and from friction passing thru the dies. I think they need a certain amount of moisture to form a good pellet though, so even if the source material is dry, I think they may need a final dry after pelletized.
RonMar said:Well the pellets I buy are made and dried, then bagged and thrown 50 to a pallet then wrapped and put in a warehouse by forklift. then again by forklift to a truck and moved probably a thousand miles bouncing down the highway where they are unloaded by forklift. then again by forklift to my truck, then unloaded by hand to my storage area. This is a minimum of what they are moved and seem to hold up well. Homemade pellets would probably endure far less movement.
RonMar said:That vendor also quoted me a price of around $1K for a bare hammermill, but I am guessing it would also need a step up drive system to get from 540 to around 2000 RPM.
I'm curious as well.charlz said:So did you get a FOB to the back of your truck price for the pellet mill?