Wood chip briquettes/logs

[MattF]

Just wondered if anyone had any links to suppliers of relatively small and less than mortgage type price suppliers of units for creating logs/briquettes from wood chips and sawdust, or any details of how a suitable unit might be constructed for the purpose.

Cheers.

 

[Fintray]

I don't have any specifics but they are generally a screw type extruder that requires high pressure to make the sawdust/wood chip heat up enough for the lignin to soften and bind the material together.

 

[madkayaker]

I have been thinking about this. The unit I saw on eBay was about 3k and looked to be a recricateing hydraulic ram and a heated die

 

[Shox Dr]

I do a lot of maintainance work on a wood yard, next door is a company that had 2 of these machines. One made pellets about 10x60mm the other hollow ones 75x300mm both had sat for sometime, as they were very finicky to use and setup, one requiring massive amounts of propane to heat it, and the other used about 200quids worth of diesel a day.

Having said that, learning from those two machines and one the fitter built (pictures to follow) and looking at other commercially available. I've a different idea. Unfortunately that's as much as I'm prepared to say on that, project.


Anyways you need to create enough heat for the cellulose to be liberated so it glues thechips together. And there in lies the problem. You need lots and lots of pressure, but only on small amount of chip. Otherwise it packs up, solid in the machine, you then spend hours unblocking it.


Interesting subject. As the wood yard produces over 10-15t of dust and chip a day, and they sell this for bedding etc. If it was turned in to pellets it would be worth a damn sight more

 

[MattF]

Cheers chaps. Which was the unit you were looking at, MK?

 

[madkayaker]

It was on eBay search brickette maker

 

[garethp]

A couple of links for home made presses;

http://woodgears.ca/reader/alois/press.html
http://www.brikomat.com

 

[@Turbo]

what about a die that hold a toilet roll paper tube or similer then press it into that. split the die and release.

like a cardboard condom

 

[madkayaker]

251252328602 is the one I saw

 

[Shox Dr]

251252328602 is the one I saw

6-15kg per hour

In Gareth's post the first one was producing at 3.9Kg per hour. The second a very optimistic 8kg per hour.

An average 8Kw stove will burn more than that an hour

 

[DrNik]

i did think a double acting ram could then make brickettes on both strokes of the ram, if the ram were to push shavings/dust into a slight tapered tube it would then compress it tighter and make some heat, wondered if it needed to be hotter, i did have some 1500watt injection moulding nozzle heater, these get plenty hot.
but very impressed with this one > http://woodgears.ca/reader/alois/press.html

 

[Shox Dr]

if the ram were to push shavings/dust into a slight tapered tube it would then compress it tighter and make some heat,

That's what the fitter thought, despite my warnings. (I've yet to get to that end of the site to take pictures. The ram he used was/is 8' long and about 20ton, all it did was pack it tighter. Took him 3 hours to unblock it the first time

 

[KemppiFrog]

That's what the fitter thought, despite my warnings. (I've yet to get to that end of the site to take pictures. The ram he used was/is 8' long and about 20ton, all it did was pack it tighter. Took him 3 hours to unblock it the first time

Yes. A farmer asked my father to work out a use for straw after they were not allowed to burn it. They ran up a system to compress it into pellets for heating. Used rams off excentrics to stuff the straw into tubular moulds. Couple of probs: the straw is quite abrasive (silica), so the moulds needed to be hardened and, as above, once pressed in, needs a split mould to release it. The friction was too much to press it out.
In the end, they considered it a dead end, and found another use for the straw.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

surely if the die as such was tapered, a pin to push out from the narrow end would take no effort at all, with another ram on it maybe?

Dan

 

[MattF]

Sounds like its one of those areas fraught with possible problems. Any ideas when you'll be able to gets those photo's Shox?

Cheers for that Ebay number MK.

 

[Shox Dr]

I'll not be back there, until next week, now. So wait on.

 

[Shox Dr]

Ebay listing, for a 11kw 3ph unit, claimed production of 250-400kg/hr.

After listening to the guys on the wood yard, I'm very sceptical of these claims, when ever you see them for sale they have done little work, leading me to believe they are more hassle than the output is worth. This guy says as much