What Are Biomass Pellet?
March 16, 2009 by GuestW
Filed under Renewable Energy
Biomass pellet are a compressed form of the original raw material. Collectively the raw material is called biomass. Biomass can take many forms, for example one form of biomass is wood. By compressing the material into pellets creates a uniform highly compressed commodity. This commodity can be used for several purposes, for example they can be burnt to produce energy in the form of heat or used for animal bedding.
- Image by s0gallchoir via Flickr
The reasons for turning the raw material into pellets is quite simple. In its raw form the biomass has a low density and is very expensive to transport. pellet can drastically reduce the foot space of the raw material. This means more of the raw material can be placed on the back of a lorry or on a boat. This means reduced transport costs, however there is another advantage. Pellets are seen as a environmentally friendly fuel and kind to the environment because of several reasons and one main reason is it takes less lorries and boats to transport pellets from one location to another. This means less CO2 is produced, which helps to reduce the rate of global warming.
Secondly in its raw state most biomass is awkward to handle and use. For example wood log stoves are very common, however the user has to manually load the stove every few hours. By turning wood into pellets the user can load a hopper and the stove will feed its self. Depending on the size of the pellets hopper the user may have to fill the hopper every day up to once a year. Therefore tuning the raw material into pellets gives a similar level of convenience users today expect and receive from gas and oil appliances.
Pellets are produced under vast amounts of pressure and heat. The biomass enters a machine called a pellet mill and under pressure and heat is turned into a pellet. The raw material is effectively melted and reformed. The pellets come out of the machine very hot, and cannot be used until they have cooled. Once the pellet has cooled it resembles a coloring crayon, they are normally about 1 inch in length and should have a surface shine. Due to their increased density over the raw material they are alot heavier than the raw material. Due to the weight and uniform size they flow like water. This ability to flow means they are ideal for hoppers and feed systems for pellet burners. The uncompressed raw material would simply bridge in a feed hopper and cause lots of problems.
Pellets burn a lot better than the unprocessed raw material. Due to the high density of the pellet, a more complete burn is achieved. This means more heat, efficiency and fewer particulates and emissions. Keeping emissions and particulates as low as possible benefits air quality and the environment.
Read more about Wood Pellet Equipment and Pellet Stoves
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