Hearthwood Pellets Owner Simon Gnehm explains how his rural Missouri plant uses a renewable source of raw materials to produce high quality wood pellets.
Excellent presentation of the pellet making process. I see significant $$$ invested in all the machinery required to make the pellets & the final product looks awesome. My pellet stove has been a great investment, it keeps my home toasty warm for far less $$$ than most other heat sources.
Great idea and video. That was your real work area. Saw a vid the other day about a foundry that was clean. What a joke. I supervised in the dirtiest foundry. But then, they were all that way. Keep up the good work. Nice to see a working work area.
really honest about the problems about pellet making. and how you treat them well. very nice. btw the stamp should lay next to the bags.. but better is buying a spray on when it seals. its not that expensive
Your pellets look just the correct length, un-like one of the company’s I was using were they plugged up in my Harmen pf-100 furnace at the auger. I switch to another company who had the correct length for me, it worked out fine.
Simon, what do you do when it rains or snows as the wheel loader is picking up a load of sawdust and the sawdust is moved to the mill. Does the sawdust become overly wet and require more time in the dryer? Do the mounds of sawdust and wood chips stored outside become soaked when it rains?
Every year California forest go up in flames for 3 to 4 months at a time, aka: burning season. It would be great if a company like Hearthwood Pellets could turn all of CA's deadwood & forest into pellets that could provide inexpensive energy for millions of families, rather than just letting it burn on it's own. I say this because California desperately needs proper forest management, plus the USA (especially California) is currently in an energy crisis & pellets are a great CO2 neutral/renewable option.
Your suggestion has too much common sense for the policy makers to take notice. And I'm sure this company would have set up a manufacturing facility in CA if they've been given the go ahead but it's the local authorities that needs to give them the permission. I'd love to know your solution being put into practice. It's a win-win answer.
I’ve seen and used your products! You made a great 👍 video it’s nice to know “How it’s Made” and that it’s a family business that ensures quality! Keep up the good work ! Do y’all happen to make press board ?
Very good presentation. Be sure to treat your valued employees well, for without them, you are shut down. Do you make larger size pellets that could be used in a fireplace?
I have a wood pellet stove for the past 18 years and since then the price of a 40 lb bag of pellets has double in price in the past 10 years. Still it does what it supposed to do as a supplement heat source. With heating oil at $4.00+ a gallon. The pellet stove is still a good cheap source of heat.
Another pellet making topic I would love to learn more about is the amount of energy required to manufacture pellets. But that might be pretty involved & might be more of a thesis paper for a college student. There is the fossil fuels required to power the trucks that deliver the wood, the fossil fuels used to build the trucks & the machinery used to make the pellets & then the energy needed to power the manufacturing process, make the plastic bags for the pellets, & last but not least the fossil fuels needed for the trucks to deliver the finished product. In my opinion a wonderful thing about locally sourced pellets like Hearthwood Pellets is that the $$$ stays local instead of giving terrorist supporting Saudi's our $$$ for oil heat.
Florida recently built the largest pellet factory in the world. Lots of softwood pellets. You can easily guesstimate energy required to deliver the raw goods. A semi truck hauls a max of 50,000 pounds. And get 6 to 8 miles per gallon. You would have to figure out what an average wood truck hauls but. Also BTUs per ton are known. So an oak pellet bag from the Midwest will have the same btus per 50 pounds as 50 pounds of Midwest debarked oak. Be an interesting project to read when you get it done.
Yes, I agree the pellet making process would be a great subject for a thesis. I suspect the pelletizing takes less energy than making charcoal as you are not throwing away the energy from the off gases. Also, note that a 40lb bag of wood pellets is less costly than 40 lb of charcoal. Another item of interest: Pellets are just pure wood, with no binder added. That is a great bonus. Charcoal briquettes have binders added. Lump charcoal does not.
@Don Berry Charcoal bricketts are made from a large percentage of coal. Lump charcoal is used when you need more heat density. Whole wood has its top temp limited by the extra stuff. That's why back in the old days when sugar caine juice was boiled for sugar prodution they took the time to make coals. Other wise it was difficult to get enough energy to boil the juice.
A study done by our very own Pentagon put climate change as a greater threat to national security than terrorism. And white national domestic terrorists as a greater threat than foreign Islamic terrorists.
Hello from France, thanks very much for showing the detail process of manufacturing Pellets. Can you please tell me what is the cost in electricity to manufacture one tonne of pellets ? whould be very great to know. By advance thanks.
That material is much more ecologicaly friendly to use for making particleboard, which sequesters it for 30-100 years instead of putting in extra energy for processing and shipping to consumers in order to burn it. Every piece of plant material taken from forests and burned in a home removes nutrients from that ecosystem. Either use it for making LONGLIVED products or compost it to fertilizer.
Really?? Guess you missed that day in kindergaten when they taught us that trees grow back. Hence the term "renewable" . Log It, Graze It, or watch it burn.
@@elmerfudd7674 but the gas used to plant trees, harvest trees, transport trees, chop up the trees, move them back and forth etc. is NOT renewable. People like you are the reason that greenwashing works. Many of these biomass to energy plants actually IMPORT wood from EUROPE to burn it in the US. Not because there isn't any trees in the US and Canada, but because it is CHEAPER and because they need so much of it. Not to mention, growing trees requires NUTRIENTS which DO NOT magically travel back into the forest that you removed the trees from after you burn them. That is how the DUST BOWL in the mid west formed in the early 1900s.
Does anyone know why some pellets claim they are softwood yet are dark brown in color? Are they including bark in the mix? Does bark have more ash than wood?
And be way of “green” pellets…I was thinking how great to help the environment. Not so; the pellets were made with recycled railroad ties, and had a horrid smell. Notwithstanding that I had to chip heavy metals out of my fire pot, that built up…..just horrid….
@@mattborden1816some manufacturers also use granulated plastics as a binder. A small amount but it is present. I used to work for a large pellet manufacturer.
just one question lets say by 2030,, what if propane an natural gas is no longer available, will there be enough pellets to support all the homes in the united states..
Hello father I want to buy kettle fit machineries from you please see how you can help me I want to start in commercial form I have many corn plants in my area I want to make kettle fit plates for that please give me video what machines are needed
Interessante ma avrei di gran lunga preferito vedere le macchine in funzione fino a prodotto finito con la spiegazione in sottofondo che la faccia parlante del tizio di fronte ai macchinari spenti.
Hola, tengo experiencia en el manejo de maquina prensa, alimento para ganado y aves, con algunos mantenimientos livianos, espero sumarme a ustedes, agradezco el espiritu de responsabilidad, y rapida adaptacion al grupo
Wood from our Lord above is such an incredible resource. Carbon neutral in that as a tree it takes in C02 and gives it back as it burns. Beautiful wood heat.
All this energy put into converting wood into a product for the sole purpose of not having to get up and feed your woodstove. Polluting our air, so people can be lazy and get even more obese.
Germany drank the "PROGRESSIVE" Kool-Aid by converting to solar panels & windmills. The end result = German's wait in line for days for bags of coal to burn to keep warm, German's are clear cutting forest to burn in order not to freeze to death this winter.
@@georgevue8175 they should've kept the nuclear power plants going. fission is the best thing we have going on right now. Someday we can switch to fusion.
Just read an article on pellets from Canada and a ship container ship going to Sweden in the bag of pogo ships that people are dying from the carbon dioxide they wear their a store the pellets in a cargo ship to take them to Sweden and the crew goes to check on there and they get sick and die of carbon dioxide poisoning from storing them in a tight ear not location
It is estimated that the USA is home to approximately 60 million illegals. A question to ask is: How much/many resources does each & every illegal consume? If the USA desires to reduce it's CO2 footprint then why does it allow 2 Million illegals/year to enter the USA? If each illegal cost $5,000/month to provide for in welfare benefits then how much CO2 is generated to create $5,000 in tax revenue?
