Let's think for a minute - what is a worthy alternative to traditional types of fuel - diesel fuel, coal, firewood? Perhaps the most worthy replacement will be only natural gas and pellets. Everything is clear with gas, but what are pellets? This solid fuel has become popular relatively recently and will be required for its production.

But the most interesting thing is that the raw materials for pellets are ordinary sawdust, cereal production waste, straw waste, sunflower husks, and without any additives, which means that the environmental friendliness of this type of fuel is guaranteed. However, in our latitudes, wood waste pellets are the most popular. You can also find such names of the fuel in question: wood pellets, pellets, pellets.

Pellets compressed into small cylinders are obtained from wood waste. Abroad, pellets are quite confidently used for heating boiler houses, both industrial and domestic, because such a material is practically unrivaled - environmentally friendly, cheap and heat transfer is comparable to coal.

If we compare specifically by the cost of fuel, then of course natural gas will be several times cheaper, but if we calculate the costs of a new gas connection, then the benefit is not so obvious. And what will happen to gas prices in the future and how safe it is is a matter for a separate article.

Pellets are very convenient to use, besides, they burn better than ordinary firewood, due to the fact that they are very dense in structure and very dry, practically without excess moisture.

The maximum effect from pellets can be achieved by using special pellet burners and boilers.

Of course, conventional stoves and boilers are also suitable for heating.

Pellet granules are packaged in bags of a certain volume, for example, 15 kg and 30 liters. It is very convenient to store and transport raw materials in such packaging. During storage, it is desirable to keep such fuel in a room with low humidity and without large temperature fluctuations, so condensation can be avoided.

The main advantages of sawdust pellets

• When burned, the calorific value is higher than that of firewood and wood chips;
• The environmental friendliness of this type of fuel is very high;
• Ash content does not exceed 3%;
• When burned, 15 times less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere than when burning coal from wood;
• The efficiency of boiler houses, when using pellets, is higher due to the fact that heat transfer is greater;
• Not subject to spontaneous combustion;
• They do not cause allergies in humans, because they do not contain specific dust and litter.

Why pellets?

Wood pellets are an environmentally friendly type of fuel that is produced from the waste of the woodworking industry. They are the highest quality and most common type of fuel.

What are the main advantages of wood pellets along with other fuels?

1. Environmental benefits

1.1 Reducing the greenhouse effect

When burned, the same amount of carbon dioxide is released into the air as the tree absorbed during growth, the so-called closed carbon cycle.

Whereas when fossil fuels are burned, carbon dioxide accumulated over millions of years is released. All this increases the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and, consequently, exacerbates the greenhouse effect.

1.2 Low risks during transportation

The risk of environmental pollution due to the leakage of oil products, tanker accidents is excluded. There is absolutely no risk of fires, explosions, or water pollution.

2. Socio-economic benefits

2.1 New jobs

Thanks to, as well as the use of wood, new jobs are created in the industrial, forestry and agricultural sectors and in the service sector. This significantly affects the formation of the cost of fuel, and also strengthens the social structure of the region.

2.2 Security of supply

Wood is a raw material that grows constantly and, accordingly, is not exhausted. If we assume that there will come a time when fossil fuels are used up, then wood will help us out.

2.3 Cost advantages

Pellets are a cost effective alternative to fossil fuels. Their prices are formed regardless of oil and gas prices, the resources of which may be exhausted over time.

3. Ability to compete with other biogenic fuels

Wood pallets have advantages not only in comparison with fossil fuels. If we compare pellets with other types of biogenic fuels, we can find the following advantages of pellets:

3.1 Warehousing

Due to the high energy content of pellets, they can be stored in a smaller storage area than any other solid biogenic fuel. This allows you to save the amount of fuel for the entire heating season.

3.2 Transport

The normalized sizes and flowability of pellets make it easy to transport them. This also makes it possible to automate the heating system: the pellets are transported by a tank truck, blown into the storage room, and then automatically fed into the boiler.

In connection with the above advantages, the production of wood pellets has now doubled compared to 2007.

Recently, in all countries of the world, there has been a growing interest in alternative sources of heating, environmentally friendly and affordable. A new type of fuel belongs to such demanded resources - pellets, small-sized wood pellets of a cylindrical shape, obtained by pressing woodworking waste or processing various raw materials.

Pellet production

The pellet production process takes place without the use of glue and chemical additives, which ensures absolute safety and environmental friendliness for the fuel. The production of bio-fuel includes several stages:

High-quality bio-fuel is produced only on high-tech equipment that meets all applicable standards and parameters. Therefore, it is so important to carefully select a reliable and responsible supplier. Deliveries of any volumes of certified, high-quality pellets are offered by the Russian Forest company, which is located in Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.

The main advantages of pellets

Using original pellets, consumers receive a number of obvious advantages:

Features of the use of pellets

Today, pellets are used for heating residential, commercial and industrial facilities. The main thing is to correctly select a heating boiler on your own or with the help of professional specialists, taking into account individual operating conditions and object parameters. Domestic and foreign manufacturers of solid fuel boilers offer a wide range of heating equipment with different power ratings, performance and cost. Among the most famous brands, it is worth noting the brands UNGARO, KLOVER, OkoFEN and BENEKOV.

Specialized and multifunctional boilers of the Kupper series, which are characterized by the following advantages, are very popular with modern Russian consumers:

• Automated loading and control system. The boiler, after technological adjustment, maintains the specified temperature regime. Fuel is supplied from the bunker as needed without human intervention in automatic mode.
• High efficiency up to 95%.
• Large power range. In the Kupper range of boilers, you can pick up equipment with a power of up to 500 kW or more.
• Long term intensive use. All Kupper boilers are manufactured in compliance with technological norms and European technical standards, which guarantee a service life of 20 years or more.
• Ease of operation, with a high level of fire and explosion hazard.

The demand for pellets in our country is growing exponentially. It is caused by the affordable price of fuel, excellent operational and technical characteristics of boilers, as well as the constant growth of energy carriers and the rapid development of the suburban real estate market.

What are pellet boilers, their characteristics and features

The article was prepared with the participation of DOZATECH specialists

Despite the fact that our country is one of the largest exporters of blue fuel, one cannot speak of widespread gasification. For many consumers in Moscow and Siberia, the cheapest way of heating is still unattainable, and it is not a fact that it will be available in the future. Therefore, we have to look for alternative sources of heating, fortunately, the choice in this area is impressive. And in recent years, the range of heating equipment has been replenished with an interesting unit - a pellet boiler. Let us dwell on this type of equipment, for which we consider the following aspects:

• What is a pellet heating boiler and what fuel does it run on.
• Unit device.
• Advantages and disadvantages of a pellet boiler.
• What to look for when choosing a unit.

What is a pellet boiler

In fact, this is a kind of solid fuel boiler, but designed for a certain type of fuel (pellets) and with the possibility of full or partial automation of the workflow.

It is the ability to function offline with minimal intervention from the owners that pellet boilers are fundamentally different from conventional, solid fuel ones.

They have a higher efficiency factor (coefficient of performance) - both due to the characteristics of the pellets and due to the design features. Pellet boilers can be either highly specialized - designed only for pellets, or combined (universal) - capable of running on wood or coal, some models work on almost any biomass, husks, wood waste and the like can be used as fuel.

Alexander DimitrevRepresentative of DOZATECH, manufacturer of pellet boilers

With a certain design of the boiler, any biomass of very low calorific value can be burned in it - these are wood chips, bark, woodworking waste, agricultural waste, sunflower husks and more.

Pellets, or wood pellets, are an environmentally neutral fuel, obtained mainly from waste from the woodworking industry (chips, shavings, bark), but they can also be from crop waste. Pellets appeared in the thirties of the last century, when the first plant was invented and tested in Idaho for pressing waste from local sawmills into pellets. Under strong pressure, the raw mass is heated, which provokes the formation of lignin, which binds the smallest particles into dense, smooth granules. This allows you to refuse the use of chemicals - pellets are completely natural, safe, in terms of ecology, fuel. The diameter of the granules varies between 6-8 mm, the length is up to 50 mm. In European countries, pellets are standardized fuels and are produced according to the DIN plus standard.

In our country, their production is not so developed and supervised, the quality of the pellets, on which both the efficiency of the boiler and its performance will depend, is visually determined - white ones are better than gray ones. Unlike wood, pellets have low humidity and high density, which means that during combustion, more heat is released and a minimum amount of carbon dioxide is released. If we translate this property into numbers, for comparison, we get the following ratio - when burning a ton of pellets, the same amount of heat will be released as when burning 1.6 tons of firewood. The ash content will be only 0.5% of the burned volume, and the emitted flue gases will be colorless.

The approximate calorific value of pellets is 5 kWh per kilogram, but how close the real efficiency will be to theoretical data depends on the quality of the pellets themselves and on the performance of the boiler in which they will be burned.

Unit device

The pellet boiler itself consists of three main components:

• Furnace - equipped with a special burner (retort or flare) and two doors (control, cleaning).
• Convective zone - a heat exchanger is located in it: it can be vertical, horizontal or combined, tubular or plate type. In the convective zone, the heat carrier is heated in the heat exchanger by gases released during the combustion of pellets. Most units are designed for heating only and have one circuit, but in some models there are two circuits: heating and water heating.
• Ash pan - combustion wastes enter it (insignificant during normal afterburning), which are periodically removed through the cleaning door.

However, the listed nodes are, although the main, but only a part, for the operation of which the APT prefix (automatic fuel supply) is required. This attachment includes the following components:

• Bunker - a container for pellets of a certain volume, from which the pellets enter the furnace, can be built-in or external.
• Auger - portionwise delivers granules to the burner as needed, driven by a gearbox.
• Fan - necessary to maintain the combustion process, since the boiler design does not provide for natural draft.

Since the pellet boiler is an automated system, its device also includes a control unit with a display, which displays information about the current state, and through which the main operating parameters are set. The controller regulates the ignition of the burner, the supply of granules and air, and the stop, as the desired temperature is reached, maintaining the heating mode selected by the owner.

Depending on the capacity of the bunker and the selected mode, one backfill can last for several days, or a week or even more.

To make the heating process fully automatic, the boiler can be connected directly to the storage - the pneumatic tube will feed the pellets into the hopper as it is emptied.

Advantages and disadvantages of a pellet boiler

One of the main advantages of pellet boilers is efficiency, according to this indicator they are second only to gas main heating. This is due to the high efficiency of the equipment, and the high calorific value of pellets, and their affordable cost. The second aspect that attracts the consumer is process automation. Unlike other solid fuel boilers, pellet boilers do not need constant monitoring and regular manual fuel supply. In units running on diesel fuel, it also wins in terms of environmental friendliness - no smells and black smoke.

The main disadvantage of these units is a solid price - these are the most expensive solid fuels, the cost of an automated European-made station is measured in hundreds of thousands, domestic ones are a little cheaper. Not every private owner can afford such injections into the heating system of his house. However, given the durability of the equipment, which today is close to two decades, this is a wise investment in the long run.

In addition to the high cost, the disadvantages include volatility - automation needs electricity, and if a shutdown for several hours (up to 10 on average) is acceptable and does not knock down the settings, then a longer one will stop the boiler. The station must be equipped with an independent power source, which will further increase the cost of the system.

What to look for when choosing a unit

Despite the relative "youth" of this type of solid fuel, the market has a large selection of boilers of foreign and domestic production. To choose the best unit for your conditions, you should pay attention to several important parameters.

Power - each manufacturer has a fairly wide range of models, including both domestic and industrial units. As with any heating equipment, power is measured in kilowatts (kW), the power of household models starts from 15 kW. Since heating a room with average heat loss requires about 1 kW per 10 m², such a boiler is able to heat a house of 150 m². However, it should be borne in mind that the boiler is needed with a small margin.

Pellets appeared on our market relatively recently. They came to us from America and European countries, where they have been used for a long time. However, this type of fuel is becoming more and more popular in our country. With the help of pellets, you can organize heating in a private house as rationally as possible.

To understand what exactly the advantages of pellets are, you need to understand what exactly they are. High-quality pellets consist of pure wood, they do not contain chemical additives and other impurities. Wood for their creation is granulated after pre-treatment. The source material is first subjected to crushing to obtain a homogeneous mass consisting of elements of a certain fraction. Then the prepared wood is dried to ten percent moisture and crushed again. The finished heating material is obtained after packaging the formed granules.

The color of the pellets may vary, as much depends on the quality of the pre-cleaning. Light-coloured pellets are more preferable, since the wood was subjected to maximum cleaning before pressing and shaping the pellets. If the fuel has a dark color, particles of bark remain in it. In a private house, the boiler will have to be cleaned often, as these particles will create soot. Dark pellets are usually used in industrial boilers. Their diameter is usually much larger. They are supplied in large quantities of two to three tons and are used to generate heat for settlements and industrial facilities.

There are several options for using this type of fuel. Initially, the production of pellets is carried out for burning them in pellet boilers and special fireplaces. Such an application is the most effective, because pellets were created precisely as a heating material. The heating of the boiler during their combustion occurs very quickly if additional oxygen is supplied. Compared to other types of fuel, pellets are considered one of the most economical options. In addition, they provide a stable heat exchange process. Many convenient features are usually found in modern pellet boilers. During operation, the supply of granules can be carried out automatically. They can have a built-in temperature controller, oxygen supply controllers and much more. When burning pellets, the efficiency is ninety percent or more.

In ordinary fireplaces and boilers, the use of heating pellets is also allowed, but you will need to manually constantly add fuel. You will also need to carefully monitor the consumption of pellets, control the supply of oxygen and the heating temperature. When using pellets in equipment not intended for them, one must not forget that this type of fuel burns much faster than, for example, firewood, and therefore the fireplace or boiler will heat up faster. One of the advantages of heating with pellets is the absence of the need for a large amount of storage space. In front of the heating equipment, they can be carefully placed in bags or some kind of containers. You can store pellets even in residential premises, as there are no chemical components and harmful impurities in them. This is a very environmentally friendly fuel, the safety of which is comparable to natural wood.

You can take pellets on a hike if there is no free access to firewood. Making a fire in field conditions with the help of pellets is quite simple. Easy to move on and keep the fire burning. Pellets today are often used and not for their intended purpose. For example, they fill toilets for animals. The harmlessness and safety of wood makes it possible not to worry about the health of pets. This heating material is very versatile. You can also meet it in car services, where pellets are used as an effective absorbent.

What raw materials are used

For the manufacture of pellets in our country, conifers are most often used, but better fuel is obtained from the wood of deciduous plants. The prevalence of conifers is explained by the fact that the equipment for their processing requires less expensive and complex. In addition, hardwoods are pressed rather poorly, so you have to spend time and money on choosing the modes of pressing, moisturizing and processing for them. Equipment is also required more powerful. At the same time, in the domestic market, the cost of pellets depends very little on the material.

More heat is released when burning birch pellets than when burning coniferous ones, however, the difference is small. But at the same time, there are no resins in birch wood that settle in the chimney. When using pine pellets, the chimney must be cleaned periodically.