A Collection of Ten Major Problems of Biomass Pellet Production Line

The biomass pellet production line needs to be established to produce large-volume pellets. If it is a small capacity pellet, a biomass pellet machine can be used. Large-scale biomass pellet plants generally build a complete production line. There are many equipments to be purchased, and there are more problems that customers want to understand. Here Richi Machinery has compiled a summary of common customer problems for the biomass pellet production line.

biomass pellet

Q 01: How is the Prospects of the Biomass Pellet Fuel Market?

The biomass pellet fuel is a kind of the renewable energy, it is a developing market in Europe and North America with great exploitation potential. If the cost of material in the area is affordable ( such as the timber wastes and the corn stalk with a diameter under 50mm), and the electric power supply is adequate, you can start your biomass pellet manufacture business. Moreover, you don’t have to only be a biomass pellet manufacturer, but also be a pellet stove manufacturer or wholesaler.

Q 02: It Seems Like the Biomass Pellet Industry Has Been Praised Highly, Can You Tell Me About the Prospects of the Biomass Pellet Market?

Every industry has its own unique entry point for the market, this is nearly the most important thing when you enter into a new market. If you missed the entry point of the industry, it will cost you a lot of time and effort, after the market has been fully developed, it may be extremely difficult for you to have a share in the industry.

Right now, the renewable energy still stays in such a small scale business, and has not been fully known by the majority of the society. Among all kinds of renewable energy, only the biomass pellet has the potential to be a fuel with the large scale application. Moreover, the biomass pellet is most likely the best substitute fuel to replace the fossil fuel.

Among all kinds of biomass, the woody pellet is the only one that can fully reserve the energy in it and be fully combusted and release the thermal energy in it. Otherwise, the other biomass material will definitely lost part of the energy. Therefore, wood pellet is the most commercial product among all kinds of biomass pellet.

If we looked back, it is easy to find out that coal is the cheapest and most popular fuel in the world, but it is also a main polluter to the environment. As the environmental protection awareness of people enhanced, some people start to focus on the substitute for coal. As the world economy has been depended on coal for such a long time, especially for the developing country, it is not possible for them to abandon the coal fuel. But we has to know that the renewable energy is the trend during the following two decades, and it is already widely spread in Europe and North America. Wood pellet is the perfect win-win solution that can keeps the cost of energy low and be environment friendly at the same time.

Q 03: How is the Economics of the Corn Stalk Pellet ?

( How to manufacture the corn stalk ? Is it suitable for the home heating system ? Is it affordable for the end users ? Can the coal-fired boilers be converted to corn stalk-fired boilers ? Is it cheaper than coal ? )

corn stalks pellet

The corn stalks can be manufactured directly, and it can be utilized in both urban and rural areas. The pellet fuel has been utilized as a heating fuel for resident heating purpose. Many residential customers in Europe and America has already adopted the pellet heating system in their own house, and they find out that the biomass pellet is much cheaper than the coal fuel.

If you already own a coal-fired boiler, it can be used to burn corn stalk pellets. Compared with the coal-fired boilers, the corn stalk-fired boilers save the ash handling facilities of the boiler, and the cinder handling facilities of the boiler. The slight ash that discharged by the corn stalk-fired boiler can be used as a fertilizer for the crops.

Q 04: How Much is the Selling Price of the Biomass Pellet ?

In order to provide the biomass pellet plant investors a clear idea about the return on investment, we now provide you the price of biomass pellet in the same year as we collected the data of the production costs of biomass pellet as a reference. In the US market: the selling price of biomass pellet in retail bags is $170/t, the selling price of biomass pellet in bulk bags is $135/t; If the destination port is in Sweden, the CIF price for American biomass pellet is $150/t; and for the biomass pellet in bulk, the FOB Amsterdam is $80/t.

Selling Price of the Biomass Pellet

In China, Both the cost of production and selling price of the biomass pellet is much lower than the average price of the European market. In China, the total production of cost of biomass pellet is about $46.17, so it is obvious that it is a price with competitive in the global biomass pellet market. So if you want to explore a biomass pellet business in China, it would be a totally promising industry for your investment, as the biomass pellet product can be used in the eco tourism area, the central heating system, and etc.

Q 05: 2 – 3 T/h Wood Pellet Production Line Cost?

The cost of production can be different in different areas around the world, but the calculation method of cost of production for wood pellet plant stays the same. The cost of production for a wood pellet plant consists of the labor cost, the management fee, the cost of materials, the electric charge, the energy consumption during drying process, the depreciation of equipment, the consumption cost of wearing parts, and the maintenance fee. You can calculate your cost of production for your pellet plant based on the price standard in your location.

Q 06: What is the Difference Between Biomass Pelletizer and Feed Pelletizer?

For a pellet plant investor, to choose the right pellet mill for the pellet plant is very important. And there may be some feed pellet plant owners hope to explore a biomass pellet business with their feed pellet mills. The working principles of the biomass pellet mill and the feed pellet mill are the same. But the characteristics of the feed pellet and biomass pellet are different, especially the moisture contents of the feed pellet and the biomass pellet. Therefore, the feed pellet mill can not be used directly to produced biomass pellet. However, if you looked for the history of pellet mill, you can find out that the pellet production technology is first utilized in feed production industry, and the manufacture technology of the first biomass pellet mill is adopted from the feed pellet mill, but with a different technological parameters and device layout.

Difference Between Biomass Pelletizer and Feed Pelletizer

Q 07: What is the Production Cost of Biomass Pellets?

The production technology of biomass pellets is a part of the renewable energy technology. First you have to know, there are many factors that impact the cost of production for a pellet plant, such as:

The cost of local raw materials ( include the transport cost of the raw materials )

The energy consumption cost during the production period

The cost of maintenance, such as the wear of equipment

The depreciation for the property, plant, etc.

The labor cost

The operation and management cost, includes the tax cost, selling cost, transportation cost and etc.

It is easy for you to understand that the cost indexes may be different due to the different time and different location. In order to give you a brief understanding about the cost of production of the biomass pellet, we can provide you some reference datas in UK:

The cost of local raw materials: $24.5 – 34/t ( approximately 32.81% – 35.5% of the total production costs )

The energy consumption cost: $5.44 – 17/t (approximately 7.88% – 16.4% of the total production costs )

The cost of maintenance: $8.16 – 15.64/t (approximately 11.8% – 15.09% of the total production costs )

The depreciation for the property, plant, etc: $1 – 2/t (approximately 1.45% – 1.93% of the total production costs )

The labor cost: $10.88 /t (approximately 10.50% – 15.76% of the total production costs )

The operation and management cost: $19.04 – 23.12/t (approximately 11.8% – 15.09% of the total production costs )

The total production costs: $69.02 – 103.64/t. This is only a reference cost for the pellet plant investors to have a general idea about the cost of production of a pellet plant.

Q 08: How Large is the Heating Area That Provided by the Pellet Stove?

To answer this question, we did a test under the following conditions: the house is built under the old building structure of single wall and single-layer window. Therefore, the conditions of warm keeping abilities of the house is bad, and the seal ability of the door and window is bad. The house is about 3.5 meters high, and the floor area is about 82.6 ㎡. When the outdoor temperature is 7℃, the temperature indoor keeps at 21℃.

Q 09: The Cornstalk is Much Lighter Than Wood, So It Will Impact the Capacity of the Pellet Fuel, So if We Use the Pellet to Generate Power and Heat, Maybe It Would Be More Expensive Than Coal.

The capacity and the combustion performance of the pellet fuel is not impacted by the weight of the raw materials. During the actual production process of power and heat generation, the performance of the coal and pellet fuel is calculated by the specific energy consumption. The combustion performance of the pellet fuel is impacted by the physical characteristics of pellet and the chemical characteristics of the pellet, which you can easily find the relevant articles in our website.

The capacity and the combustion performance of the pellet fuel is not impacted by the weight of the raw materials

In addition, the biomass pellet industry is a sunrise industry in the world, as you can see the biomass pellet plants has been established in many different territories, and the biomass pellet has been utilized in both residential heating systems and industrial power & heat generation in European countries.

Q 10: The Weariness of the Screw Pellet Mill is a Serious Problem, There Are Many Screw Pellet Plant Stopped Production Due to the High Cost of Spare Parts. How About the Wear Cost of the Ring Die Pellet Mill?

Yes, the screw pellet mill does have a high consumption of its wearing parts. About this confusion, we have done a test to measure the consumption cost of wearing parts of the screw pellet mill and ring die pellet mill.

The consumption cost of wearing parts of the screw pellet mill