Wood Pellet Furnace and Wood Pellets

A wood pellet furnace can describe many different forms of pellet burning solutions, these include wood pellet stoves and wood pellet boilers. There are many different designs of wood pellet furnace, each with its own abilities and limitations. One of the key points is premium wood pellets are the market leader, as they require the least maintenance. Wood pellet stove and boiler manufactures know that most of their consumers are only interested in burning premium grade pellet fuel for these reasons. They therefore design their wood pellet furnace with the ability to burn only premium wood pellets. The reason for this is it is much cheaper to produce a unit to burn only premium wood pellets than to successfully burn a wider grade of wood pellet fuels and other biomass fuel pellets. Most consumers at this point will no be the wiser to the limitations of their chosen wood pellet furnace. However in the future and as the pellet fuel market grows, they may begin to understand the implications of their furnace choice.

Premium wood pellet fuels are produced from timber residues of softwood and hardwood. Currently the size of the timber processing industry can support the pellet fuels industry with sufficient wood sawdust to produce pellets to meet market demand. However, the wood pellet market has not even come close to its potential, therefore where will the additional wood be sourced from? The wood used for premium wood pellets has to be from only certain species, and with the bark removed, to maintain the ultra low 0.5% ash content. The concern is that trees themselves with be cut down to meet the demands to the market.

Once the supply of wood reside cannot meet the demands of the premium pellet fuel market, then the price of premium wood pellets will rise. This has been seen already, by the impact of the banking collapse and mortgage crisis in the US. When the crisis took hold, all new housing construction stopped. This in tern meant there was less timber being processed and less sawdust. Increased prices of sawdust made the price of premium wood pellets increase, not only did the price increase, there also wasn't the volume of sawdust to meet market demand. By purchasing a wood pellet furnace which can only burn premium grade pellets you have essentially tied your self to the inevitable price rises in the future of premium pellets.

The limiting factors of poor wood pellet furnace design involve the design of the pellet auger feed system and the burn pot. Purchasing a more fuel flexible wood pellet furnace will not only mean the pellet burner can burn other grades of wood pellets, but also biomass fuel pellets which are growing in appeal.

Wood Pellet Prices and Biomass Pellets

As the price of premium wood pellets in the long term is certain to rise, alternatives which can be grown much more quickly than pine or spruce must be used. Popular biomass crops for pellet fuel are hemp and willow, both have similar burning characteristics to wood, however with hemp for example it has only a four month growing period from see and requires very little upkeep. Many other biomass materials can also be processed into fuel pellets, these include grasses such as miscanthus, switchgrass and reed canary grass. Pellet fuel has a growing future.

PelHeat Wood Pellet Production Guide

At PelHeat we have many years of experience in pellet production, and we provide a pellet production consultation service. The PelHeat guide download will show you how to make wood and other fuel pellets.

 The Wood Pellet Production Guide © PelHeat Ltd - Wood Pellet Furnace