What are wood pellets?
Wood pellets are the future of wood heating. Because wood pellets have a consistent size, energy content and moisture content they allow you to use them in automated stoves and boilers, opening up whole new world’s of possibility. Wood pellet stoves and boilers will light themselves when they are needed, typically using a small electric ignitor which comes on for a short while. The oxygen supply can be well controlled meaning that pellet stoves and boilers get very efficient and burn with low emissions. Wood pellet stoves are usually around 80-90% efficient. Because they are so efficient pellet stoves make very little ash – 2% or less of the volume of pellets burnt becomes ash and when your sweep comes to clean your chimney they will definitely notice the difference.
How are wood pellets made?
Wood pellets are made of compressed sawdust or wood dust. Sometimes this is a waste product from other industries (e.g. sawmills). The pellets are held together by the natural lignin in the wood – no glue is needed. Lignin makes up about a quarter to a third of dry wood. It strengthens the wood as well as having water proofing properties. It is also a good fuel. Wood pellets have a very low moisture content, typically 6-10%. EcoPellets Tasmania wood pellets have moisture as low as 6.9%. That means that wood pellets are a very good source of energy because very little of the energy in the pellets is used to evaporate moisture. Pellets are either made using purpose built machinery or they can also easily be made using cow feed machines as the process is very similar. Indeed a cow feed mill may make cow feed for half of the year and then produce wood pellets for the rest of the year!
Are wood pellets carbon neutral?
Wood and wood pellets are not carbon neutral. This is because it takes some energy to plant, harvest, process and transport the pellets, and this energy is usually derived from fossil fuels. The manufacturing of wood pellets takes a relatively high amount of energy, especially when compared to wood chips. If the whole process were powered by carbon neutral energy sources then wood pellets would be carbon neutral. Compared to other fossil fuels wood pellets (and wood) still result in MUCH less CO2 production.
EcoPellets Tasmania began manufacturing wood pellets in 2019 after seeing the amount of timber waste being produced from plantation timber in Tasmania. We saw the opportunity to turn a ‘waste product’ into a useful wood pellet that could be used for pellet fires, equine bedding, and cat litter. Production began at our factory in Bell Bay, where we emphasise sustainable practices, supporting the environmentally-friendly nature of our wood pellets.