How to Make Acacia Wood Pellets

Wood pellets are cylindrical, compressed wood particles which often used as burning fuel with about 1.5 inches (38 millimeters) of length , 1/4 to 1/3 inches (6 to 8 millimeters) diameter of size, 40 pounds per cubic feet (about two to three times the wood density of softwood) of bulk density. As an increasingly popular, viable and sustainable biomass feedstock that can represent an alternative to the use of coal, gas and even traditional wood logs and chips, wood pellets’ global interest remains high. In fact, global demands for wood pellets continue to rise year-over-year. According to a new report by consulting firm Hawkins Wright, it is predicted that global demand for biomass will exceed 70 million metric tons per year by 2020. Besides, European Biomass Association also expected that Europe will reach a consumption of 50 million tons per year by 2020 compared with 8 million tons per year in 2009. Wood pellets demands exceeded 23 million metric tons globally in 2014, among which Europe’s demand alone was over 19 million metric tons due to its limited ability to supply own biomass.

♧ Wood chips. Most of the raw materials for pellets making is made of wood chips that from hardwood and softwood species. Hardwood species contain oaks, beeches, willows, poplars and birches, while softwood species include spruce, fir, and pine. For pellets making , most producers prefer softwood to hardwood because softwood is easier to mill into pellets for its lower density. However pellets price is favorable to hardwood pellets.

♧ Saw milling residues such as sawdust and shavings. These residues are residues of lumber processing factory, so they need little or no drying before pellets making. In some places as saw milling has no special use, the cost for pellets making can be very low.

♧ Forest understory is mainly consist of bushes, leaves, small-diameter trees, etc. Forest understory can be treated as a renewable resource to convert into wood pellets. It provide a new way to efficiently make full use of forest understory.

♧ Another raw material for wood pellets is composed of plantations of short rotation trees such as eucalyptus, paulownia, aspen, polar and so on.

Acacia also commonly known as mimosa, thorn tree or wattle, is a wide-ranging genus grow in open, tropical to subtropical areas. It is widely develops in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Acacia wood is usually used for making furniture or other purposes in these places, however the acacia sawdust can be used to make acacia wood pellets.

As to wood pellets making, building and labor requirements are relatively low, the important element for acacia wood pellets making is to choose the right equipment and capacity. Our company’s pellet production equipment and technology is advanced and cost effective. It is specially suitable for farms, agro-products processing industry, such as rice industry, sawdust, oil palm mill, wood processing factory, etc. Acacia wood pellets production line mainly includes wood crusher, drying machine, acacia pellet mill, acacia cooling equipment and packing machine.

Crushing

Acacia needs to be crushed by crushing machine before drying process. The crusher is equipped with cutters and rotors to grind acacia. Acacia crusher is featured by stable performance and high working efficiency. Hammer mill is required to crush acacia into small particle sizes if the acacia do not reach the required size after crushing.

Drying

In order to get high density acacia wood pellets, the moisture content of raw material should be contained at 8-12%. Moisture content of your raw material is very significant for the overall content of final pellets. Sawdust dryer can reduce moisture content level to your desired standard by blowing hot air over or through the acacia.

Pelleting

Wood pellet mill is adopted in this process to compress acacia into biomass pellets. It has wide application, such as sawdust, forest understory, crop straw, agricultural residues, etc. Under high temperature and pressure condition, acacia can be squeezed into pellets.

Cooling

Acacia wood pellets have high temperature and moisture content when they discharged from the pellet making machine, therefore cooling and drying is very necessary before they are ready for use and packing. With our specially modified cooling equipment, heat and moisture are removed, the final moisture content of acacia should not be higher than 8%.

Packing

The last step for pellets making goes for packing. After packing acacia wood pellets would become easy to store and transport. In order to avoid deterioration, pellets should be kept in dry places.

Compared with the consumption of coal, petroleum products and natural gas, every ton of pellets used can reduce CO2 emissions by about 1.5 tons, total emissions offset one year will be nearly 4.5 million tons of CO2.

As the price of oil and gas are possibly to rise, wood pellets price are much more stable than any other forms of fuel, besides with the increased supply, the price is likely to fall, which would become even greater in the future.

Compared with wood chips, cord wood and sawdust, wood pellets are an efficient source of heat which can offer better heating properties per unit volume for their low levels of moisture content and ash. In fact all of the feedbacks are burned and converted to heat.

As an unlimited fuel source, wood pellets are a biomass product made of wood wastes, logs, sawdust, etc. It can realize locally produced due to its wide application. It can not only provide new ways to efficiently use raw material, but also increase overall profit.

After packing, wood pellets will become very easy to store and transport. Pellets in bags can pour directly into the stove hopper.

From what mentioned above you can see our pellet production line is quite suitable for acacia wood pellets making. Capacities of pellet production line can be customized according to customer requirement.