Drying Cost

Pellet Burner

Now let us go into the details of drying .

We refer to the data gathered during the running of BSR500 in our furnace which channel hot flue gas to drum dryer to dry sawdust .

Below you can find a table which shows our furnace burning wood offcut , wood pellet with Pellet Burner Model BSR500 and compared it with diesel . ( based on calculation )

The table shows that Wood Pellet with the correct Pellet Burner are capable of competing with even the lowest cost fuel  . The reasons are as follows :

1 ) Burning wood are OLD TRADITIONAL METHOD of producing heat , so the efficiency are very low , we gather that if the wood offcut calorific value is 2,500 KCal / kg , the efficiency is only 36% as compared to 80% for wood pellet with the Correct Pellet Burner .

2 ) Wood Offcut have fluctuating calorific value , the feeding would not be consistent , the air fuel ratio will be different , so the worker tend to blow air full blast thus lowering the temperature in the furnace in the end causing higher consumption of wood to maintain high temperature .

3 ) Pellet Burner work exactly like Diesel Burner , it fires when temperature drop to lower set value and stop firing when it reach the upper set value . This will ensure no wastage of over firing or under firing .

4 ) If you have seen worker work at furnace then you will know what I mean with this statement .

" FEED THE FURNACE FULL AND SIT AS LONG AS POSSIBLE " .

 HOW CAN YOU GET EFFICIENCY WHEN THE FURNACE IS FULL BUT NOT BURNING , worst still plenty of smoke will come out from the chimney waiting for DOE to write you a summon . This will also cause temperature to drop until your production are lowered and this cause money too . That is why some company keep using Diesel Burner even though biomass are much cheaper because loss from production are much more higher than savings .

As to the comparing with Diesel you can see the savings come up to 75% . This is a lot of money if you are burning RM100,000 of Diesel per month .

If you are in this Situation , please consider a Wood Pellet Burner :

1 ) Burning Diesel / Gas

2 ) Material Dried not dry enough or not up to specification

3 ) Dryer output too low

4 ) Furnace too small

5 ) Factory space too small for big biomass boiler

6 ) Want to increase capacity of furnace

7 ) Heating / Drying are not consistent

8 ) Shortage of workers

9) If you love mankind , do your part in reducing CO2 increase 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

LARGE PELLET BURNER

BSR500 Pellet Burner

At last we have arrive at the Ultimate Pellet Burner with European Standard Capability .

When we say European Standard , we mean it , in terms of many facet . It run 24/7 , for many weeks without intervention , just fill up tank , set correct temperature , light up , walaaaaaa . No hassle , no worker   ( " go to sleep if you like " ) , consistent heat output , no smoke , no cleaning and many many more .

BUT MOST IMPORTANT , PLENTY OF SAVINGS .

  
 BSR500

This picture shows a flame of 8 feet height and 4 feet length . The power of this Burner is 500,000 KCal / hour . 

BSR500 Burner features :

1 ) Multi Pellet Fuel

2 ) Automatic Function just like Diesel or Gas Burner 

3 ) Fuel savings of over 50% compared to Diesel or Gas 

4 ) Over 80% Efficiency of energy conversion from Pellet to Heat 

5 ) Robustly Build with minimum maintenance ( no burning chamber to repair )

6 ) No operator needed , just fill the tank and run 

7 ) Quick startup time of less than 5 minute to peak capacity

8 ) Size can be made to order depending on your furnace , minimal modification needed

9 ) High power fuel use lesser storage space , Only option for SME with small factory space

10 ) Very Very clean , no smoke , no pollution 

and many many more reason for you to change to RENEWABLE ENERGY 

If you are doubtful about this burner and supply of pellet fuel , we can supply the burner with fuel and charge based on your usage or fixed monthly rate , we guarantee savings before taking up the replacement of your current burning method .

Currently we have a unit running in Kelantan , firing into furnace . The heat are used to dry sawdust in a drum dryer at rate of 2 ton per hour output . Previously the furnace use wood offcut to the tune of 4 ton per shift of 8 hours , currently with the new burner , the furnace consume wood pellet of less than 1 ton / shift .

Some pictures of the Burner in position firing into the furnace .

Flame in Furnace



Burner Replacing Wood



Burner and Furnace

EFB PELLET

EFB Pelleting

I get many calls enquiring about pelletisation of EFB ( Empty Fruit Bunch ). We did sample production many months back , it was easy for us as EFB is a single species raw material as compared to wood sawdust where the range of wood density varies widely which is difficult to control during material preparation . You can see the quality of EFB Pellet from the test run was of higher quality in terms of length and density ( Shinier ) . The tricks of getting good quality EFB Pellet is at the material preparation side  . If the input quality is good and with properly setup Pellet Mill there will be no problem in pelleting EFB .

EFB Pelleting Plant is more expensive compared to Wood Pelleting Plant as material preparation section will be needed to process EFB strand into smaller particles . EFB Input can be in the form of Whole Bunch EFB or Shredded EFB . Shredded EFB is the result of EFB being pressed in Palm Oil Mill for additional oil extraction .
EFB Plant setup are therefore different from Wood Pellet Plant because of additional machineries and thus planning ahead will bring tremendous profit later  .

In the case ot Shredded EFB or Pressed EFB , it need to be cut to shorter length . Thereafter , I would like to Dry it here when the EFB is in short length . But there are other ways to do this depending on your setup and dryer capability .

 Material Sizing is very important before the material enter pellet mill otherwise if the strand is too long it will choke the Pellet Mill and jammed the machine . This is where the skill and experience comes into play .

Some say Flat Die Pellet Mill is better and some argue   Ring  Die is as  good , this  depends  on  the " DRIVER " if you get what I mean !!!

The good pellet mill is the one that give you good quality pellet and high efficiency with minimal maintenance and downtime .

 "  DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS STUNT WITHOUT PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE  "

There are many cases of failure to do it right from start and in the process losses are huge . Get correct advice from reputable and reliable supplier with know how to start . Many a times the seller of machineries just want to close sales and promise you the sky where in fact ( and most does ) they do not have the skill to run a pellet plant , worst if their machineries are not reliable . I have been to many plant which is a failure , my statistic , 7 - 8 out of 10 are failures or loss plenty of money before they can even start to make profit .

BIOMASS DRYING

I have touch on this topic in December 2010 in the title of Sawdust Drying . In many cases material needs to be  dried to certain acceptable  Moisture Content before it can proceed to the next stage of manufacturing  . 

In my visits to many plant , I have seen too many mistakes made in the selection of drying system , either wrong fuel are used , wrong design of furnace , wrong design of dryer , wrong design of conveying system for input and output of materials and etc . This mistakes cause many other problems down the line especially during pelletisation not mentioning high cost of drying . Make no mistake , you cannot have good system if you do not have proper knowledge of drying and combustion . That is why drying system are expensive because it will saves you money later and in some cases a matter of do or die . 

Drying Efficiency

Drying for pelleting process are normally done with direct chanelling of hot flue gas into the drum dryer where the hot air are in direct contact with the material to be dried . This process of direct contact are of highest efficiency as compared to indirect heating with a heat exchanger . Depending on material , moisture content of the material and structure of the material , the hot flue gas input temperature can be as high as 800º celcius . The higher the temperature , the faster the material are being dried and you will get higher output from the drum dryer otherwise the drying section will become bottleneck . Consistent temperature from the furnace to the dryer are also important so that the Moisture of Biomass dried is consistent . To achieve consistency and narrow range of Moisture , firing into furnace or dryer need to be consistent , this can be achieve by having good Burner .

Drying Cost

Many  a times this was overlook , everything we sell have a selling price and it also come with a cost . Similarly in wood pelleting , there is cost to manufacturing of wood pellet , and to those who use wet sawdust or even EFB , there will be need for drying , this is one section which is often overlook . Good cost structure will be drying cost of below RM20 / MT of dried raw material . How do we achieve this : 

1 ) use low cost material like timber offcut , woodchip , EFB , Palm Fibre etc

2 ) use high efficiency pellet burner because you are producing pellet 

3 ) do not use electricity , gas or diesel burner , you calculate the cost yourself to find out 

That being said , the planning of Good Drying System is pertinent to keep the cost low so that there will be profit in the selling of pellet . If you dry your material above RM50 / MT then this business will be unprofitable . 

In short it is not easy to keep cost low as currently for any fuel there is cost involved , selection of correct drying system are important .

Drying Quality

During pelleting process , consistent Moisture Content of material input are important to give consistent quality of pellet output , otherwise one minute you will get good and the next minute bad quality pellet . Therefore dryer must have flexibility to ensure Consistent MC for biomass output from dryer .

For your information , any sawdust or even EFB will have sand and stone in it , too much of it will increase the ash content of pellet and thus pellet price will be affected . A good dryer will have system to remove partial of the sand and stone . Removal of sand and stone will also prolong the life of roller and die during pelleting process . 

3 of the above factor are important in the selection of the correct dryer . Wrong selection will cause the followings : 

1 ) Under or Over Capacity of dryer 

2 ) Low temperature input will cause slow drying 

3 ) Inconsistent temperature cause fluctuation in drying thus MC of biomass dried will not be consistent 

4 ) Wrongly build furnace do not give enough heat input to dryer causing under utilisation of dryer 

5 ) Wrong air flow of hot flue gas are not sufficient for drying of biomass 

6 ) Wrong design of input and output conveyors reduce the efficiency of drying

7 ) Non Flexibility of dryer controller make it difficult to get good drying results

8 ) Wrong biomass used for firing , increase cost of drying , whole project not viable 

9 ) Manual feeding of biomass fuel in big furnace are not recommended as labour incur cost and optimum drying are not achieved 

10 ) Inconsistent MC of biomass dried cannot be pelletise into good quality pellet 

11 ) Too much sand and stone will jam the Pellet Mill and damage other parts

and many many more .

Make sure Dryer are selected correctly .

WOOD PELLET FOR SALE

We now offer wood pellet for sale in the local market .

Price delivered Klang Valley at RM300 / MT in Bulk Bag .

Below are the test certificate and photo of wood pellet .

Call me at 012 9887 118 Lee Seng Ann .

Pellet Manufacturing

Choosing the Right Pellet Line

I received many enquiries from potential investor on setting up wood pellet or EFB pellet Plant .

Most of the questions asked are as follows :

1 ) Price of Pellet Production Line

2 ) Capacity per Hour per Pellet Mill

3 ) I want to visit your factory in production

We are more than glad to received any visitors and offer quotation for our pellet line .

In my opinion , what potential investors should have asked are :

1 ) Effciency of the Pellet Production Line

2 ) Maintenance of the machineries especially the pellet mill

3 ) Return on Investment ( ROI )

Efficiency

We claim that our pellet mill and the whole line can produce > 1 TPH for a pellet mill with 420 internal diameter die , CONSISTENTLY over prolong period of production time . I believe not many can claim this !!!

You can buy Pellet Mill from so many supplier from China are reasonable price , most can produce 1 TPH consistently but not over prolong period of time .

Pellet Mill from China are still in infant stage as the same pellet mill are for feed production . Therefore it is not as robust as machines from USA or Europe which price are at least double .

Efficiency are very important in Pellet Production as the capacity are very small i.e. 1 TPH per machine , you need to be efficient to make profit . If your machine can only run 8 hours per day but others can operate 15 hours per day , others will make double your profit .

In short pellet manufacturing is a race against time .

Maintenance

Many stories from friends regarding their pellet mill performance .

Die cracking , roller bearing need constant change , pellet refused to come out , need additives for smooth production and etc .

1 piece of Die cost RM5,000 , should last 500 ton production , if the die crack by 250 ton , then your cost will go up to RM20 per ton instead of RM10 per ton . Not mentioning down time and failure to deliver to customer will cost you more .

Return on Investment

I am not sure how many of the potential investor have data on the profitability of wood pellet manufacturing . But I believe most do not have complete and accurate data and depends on the fact that they want to go into this business as there is so many enquiries for this product .

This business are definitely lucrative as of now if you have this advantages :

1 ) ample supply of raw material

2 ) good wood pellet production line

A friend of mine once said if you get the correct combination of raw material , machines and customer , you are simply printing money every second .

Conservatively , Our Wood Pellet Line should have payback within 2 year and ROI of over 6% per month .

Whole Line Wood Pellet Plant

2 Ton Per Hour Pellet Plant

We are a bit delayed in the installation of our 2 Ton Per Hour ( 2 TPH ) Whole Line Wood Pellet Plant . New date for commissioning have been push back to End of April 2011 .

Lots of minor problems with China Whole Line Design and Installation .

I admit we overlook a few areas and also the professionalism of China Machinery Supplier are in doubt especially in Project Management and also the linkage between each section in the Whole Line Plant .

But in the process we also learn a lot for our future expansion plan and possibly our new 2nd line maybe in 6 month to 1 year time .

We now believe that our pellet mill are one of the best from China and hopefully when it is in production it should give us above 1.2 TPH for the Model 420 unit with minimal maintenance .

Here are some of the photos during installation of machineries at my plant .

Current Pellet Mill / Pellet Mill Plant from China have the following problems :

a ) Pelet Mill Die cracking after short time of usage

b ) Roller Bearing need constant change

c ) Constant Jamming in the Pellet Mill Die Chamber

d ) Low Density of Wood Pellet Produced

e ) Sawdust need additives during production to ensure smooth output of pellet from Pellet Mill

We also found out that many China supplier are not genuine factory owner which means they buy and sell the machineries , thus technical wise they are not up to standard unless they are supplying the best machines from the best fabricator . Normally this is not the case as the buyer will haggle about pricing , therefore the supplier will tend to get the cheaper machines which will create problems in the end . How would you know which is the best machines from China , there is more than 100 supplier of pellet mill machineries from China , everyone say they supply the best . Unless you want to CAMP there to search for the best machines . For the record , I did 3 tour of duty to China to search for the best machineries .

Pre-requisite of establishing a Wood / EFB Pellet Manufacturing Business :

1 ) Stable source of sawdust or EFB

2 ) Total Investment - RM1 Million including machineries , electricity supply , local steel fabrication , forklifts & etc for a 2 TPH Whole Line Plant

3 ) Some technical knowledge on machineries

4 ) For now , market should not be a problem , it is a matter of pricing

Lately ( the last 3 months ) , my blog have generated tremendous search for wood pellet maybe due to the current high price of fossil fuel which at the time of writing , Nymex Oil Futures is at over USD100 per barrel . Inflation in China is also causing a problem as Wood Pellet Plant pricing have also increase from initial RM750,000 earlier to over RM850,000 now , at last count . Sawdust price have also been increasing locally . If price continue to rise , it might not be viable anymore to invest in Wood Pellet Business unless Wood Pellet price play catch up in the near term .

WOOD PELLET / EFB PELLET BOILER

BOILER

The boiler are design for winter heating in Europe and are suitable for industries which need hot water e.g hotel hot water supply and industrial cooking .

In Malaysia , currently all small and medium size boiler are fuel by either gas or diesel making it environmental unfriendly .

The high number of boiler using fossil fuel are due to the following reasons :

1 ) Previous low oil price at below USD40 / barrel ( around RM1.00 / liter )

2 ) Convenience in handling diesel boiler

3 ) No other alternative ( technology & supplier of biomass boiler )

4 ) No other suitable fuel for small boiler

5 ) Perception of Biomass Boiler are unclean

Most of the above reasons are currently being solved with new technological advancement and availability of new biomass boiler and suitable fuel ( Wood Pellet or EFB Pellet ) .

We plan to introduce this type of pellet boiler for industrial user in Malaysia with our wood pellet .

Pricing start from RM75,000 for 200,000 kCal / hour to RM200,000 for 1,000,000 kCal / hour Wood Pellet Boiler . The low cost are due to mass production for this type of boiler .

Payback are normally within 5 month to 1 year inclusive of the boiler , FOC after the payback period .

Characteristic of Wood Pellet / EFB Pellet Boiler are as follows :

1 ) Fully automatic with preset temperature needed for the hot water , burner will start and stop at preset level

2 ) 90% efficiency due to it's design and efficient air fuel ratio balance during combustion

3 ) high safety feature without chances of explosion as it uses wood pellet which is less flamable

4 ) very clean burning without smoke although ash need to be dispose off once every week

5 ) space saving as structure of the boiler is compact and sturdy

For the first unit we sell in the Malaysia market , we are giving great discount to promote this technology .

Write to us / Call us NOW ! ! !

Pellet Mill

Pellet Mill are the " HEART " for Wood Pellet Production , Very Important . All other equipment are Ancillaries .

Pellet Mill Equipment from China are still at a very infant stage as compared to American or European Pellet Mill , but pricing wise , it is only 1 / 5 the price .

Unless you are going for very high output and have the investment capacity to invest for very long term , China Machines are of better choice .

And even so , you have so many Suppliers , Hundreds maybe , some are Merc , some Toyotas and some Protons , you could guess what I mean , pricing starts from USD20,000 to USD50,000 / unit for a Pellet Mill and Whole Line Plant can range from USD200,000 to USD650,000 for a 2 TPH Line . We have scour many part of China for the right machines .

The lower range will get you to do more maintenance and lower production and the higher range might not be feasible for Malaysia Environment . So , choose wisely .
Due to it's infancy , choosing the right Pellet Mill are important as it have the following problems that need to be address :


1 ) Die Chamber too Hot thus Die will break under stress ( Die cost RM6,000 / unit )

2 ) 24 hours operation not possible

3 ) Standard Die size of 420mm Diameter ( the normal Model SZLH420 MZLH420 ) definitely cannot produce more than 2 TPH per machine , if all conditions are right maybe you would get 1.5 TPH , this is where the learning curve start , how soon can you achieve optimum production , simple calculation , shortage of 0.5 TPH X 2 machine X 16 hour / day X 26 day / month X 3 months X RM100 / ton = RM124,800 in Sales Value , so imagine the savings if it is longer than 3 months . ( Some Manufacturer are claiming above 2 TPH , even 3 TPH )
The Pellet Mill we chose have somehow resolve partially some of the above problems with the right combination of ancillaries equipment . In our opinion it is of reasonable pricing and technically capable to handle over 2 TPH wood pellet production with minimum staffing .
You are invited to visit us once production starts .
The problem above may need another 5 years to solved as the supplier of this machines learn from mistakes and improved on it .
Our target is to invest in reasonably priced machine , high efficiency and low maintenance , so that we can recoup our investment in shortest time possible and have a decent profit to show .