If you are looking to read about making wood pellets from sawdust, you have just landed in the right place. Before moving on to the process, some basic knowledge about what sawdust is can give you a better understanding of the procedure.
Sawdust is a waste material that is left out after cutting, drilling or grinding wood. Now, not all by-products are useless. Sawdust is widely used to make wood pellets. Which in turn can be used as burning or heating material. Therefore, if you can convert useless sawdust into wood pellets, it’s a great alternative to burning fossil fuels.
How to make wood pellets from sawdust
Making wood pellets from sawdust is no rocket science. Following is a step-by-step guide on how the process is carried out.
- Arrange the raw material and add some water to the sawdust. Moisture in sawdust works as an adhesive and helps to bring it together. Therefore, the optimum moisture content in sawdust is between 8%-15%.
- Once the mixing process with water is finished, carefully add the water-mixed sawdust to the pellet machine. The type of pellet machine can vary according to the scale and quality of pellets you want to manufacture. For large-scale pellet manufacturing, you can use a screw feeder. This will stabilize the feeding of sawdust to the machine.
- Once the pellets are fed to the machine, their temperature rises. This prevents you from packing or handling them directly. Therefore, using a suitable pellet cooler comes in handy. It allows you to cool hot pellets on a large scale so they can be handled and packed easily.
- At this point, you have made wood pellets from sawdust. However, to bring neatness you need to pass them through a vibrating sieve. This process separates any broken pellets and the powder from the good pellets.
- Once you have given them the finishing touch, it's time to pack! For this, you can use a pellet packing machine that allows you to carry out large-scale packing.
If you follow the above-mentioned steps carefully, you can turn useless by-product sawdust into high-quality wood pellets.
Uses of wood pellets
Wood pellets have multiple uses. Therefore, obtaining them from a cheap by-product such as sawdust is a real deal. Here are some of the key uses of wood pellets:
- Saw-dust-made wood pellets are used for cooking purposes. This gives an economical and environmentally-friendly alternative to non-renewable burning resources.
- It is also great for heating purposes. Especially heating schools, homes, or hotels.
- In mainstream industry, wood pellets can be used in place of carbon-emitting fossil fuels such as coal.
- Another great use of wood pellets is for the animals. They can be used as bedding for cows, dogs, chickens, and horses.
- If you are a cat owner, you can use wood pellets as cat litter in place of clay.
Wood pellets are highly versatile. So, if you can make them from a by-product such as sawdust, it is beneficial in many areas.
Conclusion
Making wood pellets from sawdust is a win-win for both the environment and the user. Rather than burning coal or natural gas for different energy purposes, wood pellets offer a cheap alternative. Sawdust can be easily turned into wood pellets by using a pellet-making machine. So, if you have been looking to make some of your wood pellets, do it today!