Setting up a proper pelleting plant can be costly. The two biggest manufacturers of pellets in the UK – Balcas, which sells pellets under the brites brand and Clifford Jones Timber briquettes and pellets as Blazers – have invested multi-million pound sums to get their plants up and running.
But it’s not just about money: developing the right product also takes time. “You don’t just buy the kit, put your wood in, turn the key and expect a finished product,” said Geoff Horan of the Biomass Energy Centre. “It takes a while to develop a process and a recipe that gives you a material that meets durability standards. It’s not just installing the plant but setting up in manufacture.”
The Balcas plant at Invergordon, the largest in the UK, uses lodgepole pine to produce 100,000 tonnes of brites a year. Its location wasn’t chosen at random: key to the decision was the reliability of the supply of material – something that should be a major point for anyone thinking about moving into pellet or briquette manufacture.
“We are totally self-sufficient when it comes to making our briquettes,” said Paul Clarke at Blazers Fuels. “We are using everything from our residue. Some people have set up pelleting plants but had to close them because they can’t get the supply of wood waste.
Learning curve
“It has cost us a lot more money than we thought it would and it has been a steep learning curve,” added Mr Clarke. “It has also meant other investment in plant, such as pellet blowers. With the RHI coming in next year, a lot more people will be looking at renewable energy. But the biggest factor in terms of manufacturing wood fuel such as pellets or briquettes will continue to be the raw material supply.”
However, Dan Rudge, director of the Briquette & Pellet Company, believes it doesn’t necessarily have to cost the earth to commission a pelleting plant. He calculates that the company has spent only a fraction of the cost of Balcas and Clifford Jones Timber – some £250,000 – to get its Uttoexter plant up and running, while its new plant in Leicester, where a drying facility has had to be installed, will come in at around £500,000.
And, while he admits that some of his competitors have been hit by problems over waste material supply, the Briquette & Pellet Company is unlikely to fall into the same boat. “We have no concerns over our raw material,” he said. “Our Leicester plant is self-sufficient, receiving its wood waste from Astley Fencing right next to the plant, while we’ve set up supply deals for our Uttoexter plant.”
However, he said that technology needs to be adapted to make it easier for pellet manufacturers to produce the right amount of products to feed demand. “There’s a lot of hot air blown about the pellet market,” said Mr Rudge. “Manufacturers need to alter the boilers so that they can process bark. This would make the whole process more streamlined.”
