Today, the need for alternative fuel sources is clear. Our reliance on fossil fuels is no longer sustainable or affordable. There is a limited supply of fossil fuels, plus as the global population continues to raise at an accelerating rate, those supplies cannot meet the demands of a growing population. Also, fossil fuels are now known to be a key contributor to climate change and carbon emissions. Therefore the need for alternative fuel sources such as wood is driven on energy supply, fee and environmental concerns. The issue is how do we capture the fuel from biomass. Biomass in its organic form is not an ideal fuel source. Biomass generally has a low bulk density and therefore also a low fuel density. Also the moisture content of raw wood is generally too high to provide efficient incineration. Therefore the wood requires processing into a more useable form of fuel. Pellets are part of that biomass solution.

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As discussed, biomass in its raw form is not ideal as an fuel source through its low density and high moisture content. One of the simplest ways to turn biomass into a highly proficient and cheap form of fuel is to compress the wood material into pellets. Pellets are in the shape of small cylinders, which for fuel pellets are usually 6 or 8mm in diameter. Pellets have a much higher bulk and energy density compared to the raw material plus also a much lower moisture content below 10%. This enables the pellets to burn much more efficiently than raw wood. There are also developments to create wood pellets even more efficient, as well as have a higher energy density. One interesting practice is torrefaction. Torrefaction is where the biomass is heated to between 200 in addition to 300 degrees, as well as a lot of the unwanted volatiles which decrease burning efficiency are burnt off. What is left is a much purer form of carbon which not only burns much more more efficiently than standard biomass along with biomass pellets, it also have several other payback. This payback include being hydrophobic, which means the pellets are not susceptible to moisture as energy pellets currently are. Torrefied biomass in addition to biomass pellets are gaining ground, plus are the future.

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Converting biomass energy into pellets brings house heating by way of solid biomass fuel away from high maintenance log stoves into the 21st century. Modern pellet stoves along with boilers have a variety of automated features which diminish the work load of the owner. For case fuel hoppers on pellet burners usually hold at least a days worth of energy. On the other hand some have large external hoppers which hold a years reserve. Owing to the demand for energy from wood plus a greater demand for pellets, interest in pellet production has also grown significantly. Generating quality fuel pellets requires more than a few pieces of gear from chippers, hammer mills, dryers in addition to pellets mills also known as pellet machines plus pellet press. Operating this tools requires a definite knowledge of what each matter requires to make quality pellets.

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