Factors Affecting the Cost of Wood Pellet Plant

What are the factors that affect the cost of a wood pellet plant? How much does it cost to build a complete wood pellet plant? The construction of a wood pellet plant requires not only an investment budget, but also an understanding of what the raw materials are, moisture, and how much output per hour.

According to the budget and the above problems, we can customize the wood pellet plant solution for you according to the output. The same is a 10t/h wood pellet production line, the configuration is also divided into low, standard and high.The wood pellet plant price difference is also relatively large.

Related cases

• 5T/H Austria Wood Pellet Plant
• USA 10TPH Wood Pellet Plant
• Indonesia 1-1.5T/H Wood Pellet Plant
• Romania 2-2.5TPH Wood Pellet Plant
• Germany 2-2.5 T/H Wood Pellet Plant
• Iceland 1-1.5 T/H Wood Pellet Plant
• Canada 2-3T/H Wood Pellet Plant
• Congo 1-1.2 T/H Wood Pellet Plant

Factors affecting the cost of wood pellet plant

Raw material cost for wood pellets plant

The price for wood pellet plant raw material depends on moisture content. The average figure is between 40 and 60 per cent of moisture. Thus, as higher this figure is, as more expensive the production of pellets is. The reason is that the high content of moisture raises expenses in order of drying. Moreover, recovered wood, which contents far less moisture than virgin fibre does, is significantly cheaper, as it was mentioned before.

Another characteristic, which is important in this case, is the size of raw material. The point is that oversized material cannot be processed by wood pellet mill machine. Therefore, in case logs are too large, wood pellet hammer mill should be applied to grind them. In this case, the cost of this wood pellet line plant unit is to be included into calculations.

Equipment cost for wood pellets plant

In addition, people who want to start wood pellet plant production business should calculate the feedstock costs. Wood pellet manufacturing plant consists of several unit, each one of different type. The point is that every type of wood pelleting equipment is applied to process different raw material. What is more, different feedstock requires different processing conditions. For instance, softwood or hardwood demands different compression ratio. The higher one is require to process softwood. Thus, this condition should be taken into account in order to choose an appropriate wood pellet plant equipment.

Pellet production line equipment

Output of wood pellet plant

Supposed yield of pellets should be taken into account as well. As more pellets are expected to be produced, as more expensive equipment for wood pellet plant  is to be installed. What is more, the wood pellet plant equipment, which is to produce great amount of wood pellets, requires a large workshop, which evidently will raise the cost of wood pellet plant building.

Other costs for wood pellet plant

In accordance with the study of Richi Machinery, other factors also make impact on how much it would cost to establish a wood pellet plant. First of all, the consumption of energy should be calculated. It costs, in average, $10 per tonne. The cost of wood pellet plant machines repairs and lifecycle maintenance equates around $5 per tonne. Loading onto rail for bulk shipments will cost $2.5 per tonne.

Additional capital costs include grinding on site ($3-4 million), pellet storage and rail load facilities ($2 million). It is also important to say, that the cost of such factors as labour and basic capital cost depend on wood pellet manufacturing plant capacity. If it is, for instance, 150,000 tonnes annually, labour expenses will equate approximately $10 per tonne. In case capacity is 100,000 tonnes annually, basic capital cost will reach $125 per tonne.

It is also necessary to add the total cost of wood fuel pellet plant construction depends on region. It will be higher in the European countries in comparison with the USA and Canada, as energy expenses are significantly higher here.

In summary, the cost of wood pellet plant construction includes a number of factors. Among them are the type of raw material (its size, moisture content and so on).It makes impact on both feedstock price and types of wood pellet making equipment required. Beyond that, some other factors should be taken into account, such as supposed wood pellet plant capacity, basic capital cost, labor, repair and maintenance, storage and transportation.