Creating Bioheat: A Look Inside New England Wood Pellet

Graham Jesmer, Staff Writer
April 30, 2008 | 5 Comments

New England Wood Pellet's Jaffrey, New Hampshire plant produces approximately 75,000 tons of wood pellet fuel per year. Most is bagged and shipped to a network of more than 100 retailers throughout the Northeast. From there it helps heat homes, businesses and schools. Steve Walker, the company's president and CEO, took the time to show RenewableEnergyWorld.com around the facility to give us a look at how wood pellets are made.

The process starts with trucks dumping different types of waste wood, including sawdust, green wood and dried kilned wood at New England Wood Pellet's wood storage yard. From there the wood goes through blending, drying and homogenizing processes and then finally pellet formation before it goes out to customers in bagged or bulk form.

The plant employs about 25 people in production and transportation. The company purchases close to 175,000 dry and green tons of wood residues for the plant each year, from sources throughout the Northeast, providing a market for wood waste and low grade timber resources. According to Walker, the pellet industry has seen an average of 10% growth per year over the last decade and as fossil fuel prices rise that growth should continue into the future.

To take a virtual tour of New England Wood Pellet's Jaffrey, New Hampshire facility, play the video below.

5 Comments

Anoop Ramlugun
May 3, 2008

Biomass is a form of renewable energy. we should work more on the theme and render it more efficient. what if we could modify the chemical composition of the wood pellets by genetic engineering have a higher calorific value,with faster growing plants and produce a large scale electricity production. surely it would contribute to reduction of fossil fuels.

R t
May 2, 2008

I love the idea of burning wood, it's soooo retro. Perhaps this time we won't cut down all the trees at once :)

I wonder what the energy in (wood transport, pellet creation, transport again) to energy out (heat in the house) ratio is?

I think cost and the energy ration correlate, but cost is more important.

Charles de Geofroy
May 2, 2008

I would be curious to know if the production of the wood pellets is energr efficient. I heat with wood in my home and have thought of getting a pellet stove in my home also. My question is could a study be done to show the energy used to manufacture wood pellets and transport them. I know they are carbon neutral but what about the machinery to produce the pellets. Thank You.

Mike Hilliard
May 2, 2008

I wish I had had the intestinal fortitude to follow through with a similar product I was developing for the Midwest - my feed stock would be fallen leaves as well as scrap wood products. Revenue streams = contracted collection of yard waste and leaf pickup in the spring and fall for urban communities (jobs), storage and/or conversion in one of the many, many old industrial buildings in the inner city (jobs) conversion into a log shape in a similar process to yours and then distribute and sell the finished product through the 7-eleven type of store. The addition of small trace chemicals would provide pyrotechnical colors and or allow scented smoke - designer flames so to speak. New product that requires little to no new technology at the end user's location. Darn. Getting old is an idea spoiler.

GLEN perkins
May 2, 2008

Bottom Line, wood pellets are cheaper than fossil fuels, the energy cost to get them to the consumer are in the retail price. Therefore, If the energy cost out weighed the gain in cost per btu, i.e. ethanol, then we probably would not have wood pellets, unless congress wanted to subsidize them too, i.e ethanol.

Here is a cost comparison table for different fuels.

http://www.pelletheat.org/3/residential/compareFuel.cfm

Add Your Comments

To add your comments you must sign-in or create a free account.

Graham Jesmer

I am currently a third year Law Student at Vermont Law School where I work as a Research Associate at the Institute for Energy and the Environment writing and researching energy law and policy issues. I also hold a position as a Staff Editor...