Pellet Mill

**Ross** · #1 04/16/10, 07:49 AM

The topic came up a while ago on AE but I thought I would ask here too if anyone was making their own pellet stove fuel. There are small mills out there for convertign grass to pellets.

rileyjo · #2 04/16/10, 08:31 AM

Not making my own but I wish I could. I used 45 bags of pellets for the entire winter. Thats not bad, considering the house is 132 years old and very drafty.

I was at an OMFRA conference recently and switchgrass for fuel was one of the topics covered. They were using a miscanthus grass and spent about 15 minutes showing how it was planted, tended, harvested and processed. Interesting, since it is a perennial grass not unlike taking off a hay crop. The stuff grows about 10 feet tall and does well in Ontario.

TnAndy · #3 04/16/10, 08:47 AM

Got a link for small pellet mills ?

Thanks

Stush · #4 04/16/10, 09:37 AM

http://www.makepellets.com/

fishhead · #5 04/16/10, 09:50 AM

I did a little reading on grass pellets. Per pound they are equal to wood and it doesn't make any difference what species of grass, weeds, sawdust is used.

By harvesting in the fall less nutrients are harvested so less needs to be replaced.

I think it's got a lot of promise.

Thanks for the link to the small mill.

**fordson major** · #6 04/16/10, 08:02 PM

multiple uses for these machines, even getting a pellet mill for packing feeds! lots of work was done on growing willow and poplar for feedstock back in the 70,s will have to venture to the library next week and see if the research material is still there! miscanthus sounds very promising! use of sludges on the fields would be promising as well.

Micheal · #7 04/17/10, 04:51 AM

FarmTek has pellet mills for sale.
They offer: 2 that run off a tractor's PTO and 2 that use 3-phase motors.
Cost: cheapest, $6500.00 most exp, $16500.00

You figure if'n it's worth the money?

rileyjo · #8 04/17/10, 06:18 AM

Where I live, pellet stoves are very popular because the majority of the population is over the age of 55. The 3 hardward stores that carry pellets cant keep up and the line of cars is long when the transport comes in with its skids of pellets. My neighbour hauls cattle south and brings pellets up on the return load. He has the skids presold. Two or three skids a winter is about normal use for a person who heats soley with a pellet stove.
With all the hayland here, someone with a mill could do very well.

Menglish · #9 04/17/10, 08:59 AM

I wonder if there's something out there that can be worked by hand? Something with a big lever or hand powered hydraulics...think bottle jack type power.

farminghandyman · #10 04/17/10, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Menglish

I wonder if there's something out there that can be worked by hand? Something with a big lever or hand powered hydraulics...think bottle jack type power.

I do not think even if made it would be practical as the slowness of it would not make it worth doing unless you just needed a hand full of pellets,

if you watch the videos of the small powered mills, for any real use I would question the use of them, for there slowness and low rate of feed,

Wanda · #11 04/17/10, 11:55 AM

Ross go to iburncorn.com and you can find a wealth of information. They are an adventurous group when it comes to heat. There are some pellet mill owners there that have tried most everything in a pellet that will burn. The big concern with grass is the amount of ash.

texican · #12 04/17/10, 12:32 PM

If someone here does make the plunge, I'd like them to post a cost/benefits analysis. Cost of mill, cost of materials to 'feed' mill, labor, fuel, electricity, bags, upkeep, etc..... vs simply buying predone pellets. If a mill costs ~6k, how long would it take to pay it off, vs buying.

If using a pto driven mill, and the world ends, how much fuel will you store on site for the tractor... and once you realize there'd never be another fuel resupply, would you want to use precious fuel for harvesting materials, hauling them, and processing them?

[sorry, most of you know I have an inherent dislike for pellet stoves, as they're not sustainable by manual labor... aka, axe and trees]

Regardless of my prejudice, cost/benefits have to be positive. Now, if someone were going into something like this on a commercial basis, it might pay... but then again all the costs would still be there, plus marketing and selling costs. Someone with a lot of waste resources could make a go of it, if they weren't averse to lots of manual labor (or had a front end loader or skid loader already)!

fishhead · #13 04/18/10, 07:26 AM

For home heating purposes it might be better to build a compost pile with water circulating pipes placed inside the pile to capture the heat rather than put energy into pelletizing. Then when you are done you have a valuable soil additive for food production.

And for fuel production you just convert some to methane.

This set-up does both. I posted it in the Alternative Energy forum.

http://www.electricitybook.com/composting-for-heat/

Riverdale · #14 04/18/10, 08:04 AM

We are considering the DIY hammermill plans from the iburn pellets site for making our ouwn layer feed.

Seems like (especially with switchgrass pellets) that something like this could serve a dual-purpose......

PulpFaction · #15 04/18/10, 04:29 PM

I'm sure it would just take a quick search for me to find out how a pellet stove works, but I am short on time right now so here's my question:

Could a pellet stove not be modified to burn rabbit or goat droppings? Afterall, they are essentially grass pellets.

And dried manure is a very efficient heat source. At least in that one article that was passed around, poo bricks burned comparably to well-cured oak logs.

I like the versatility of the pellet mill (for feed and fuel,) but I like the idea of not dropping tons of $$$ and using a waste resource I have ready to go.

Edited to ask whether all pellet stoves require electricity to work?! That's weird.

**Ross** · #16 04/18/10, 04:36 PM

DIY hammer mill???? No offense meant but you can buy a PTO powered hammer mill ubber cheap. I paid $200 for mine and it has a mixer tank too.
My reservation is this. I take a $4 bale of hay and turn it into a $5 bag of pellets....retail. Hmmmmmm biz school was a while ago for me but my math was always purty good. OK ok I can harvest crap hay cheaper than that I know, I already have the machinery too..... but how good are grass pellets in a stove?

DaleK · #17 04/18/10, 08:04 PM

Ross I have a neighbour who burns small squares of hemp and crappy hay in his Empyre, forget what size it is but he can go all day in January on a bale of hemp and a good half day on grass. He only uses the hemp he can't sell (which is most of it). I don't think there'd be much gain pelletizing it unless you had a big scale operation.

I sold an old NH mixmill with a good hammermill on it last fall for scrap, tank was leaking and there's just no demand for them anymore. And I kept the good one just in case.

texican · #18 04/18/10, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ross

DIY hammer mill???? No offense meant but you can buy a PTO powered hammer mill ubber cheap. I paid $200 for mine and it has a mixer tank too.
My reservation is this. I take a $4 bale of hay and turn it into a $5 bag of pellets....retail. Hmmmmmm biz school was a while ago for me but my math was always purty good. OK ok I can harvest crap hay cheaper than that I know, I already have the machinery too..... but how good are grass pellets in a stove?

Ross, you might lose money on every sale, but you'd make up for it by selling in volume...... {one of my favorite "Riders In The Sky" sayings}

**fordson major** · #19 04/18/10, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texican

Ross, you might lose money on every sale, but you'd make up for it by selling in volume...... {one of my favorite "Riders In The Sky" sayings}

sounds like farming!

**Ross** · #20 04/18/10, 08:52 PM

Buy retail sell wholesale, thats the life for me!