What is a pellet screener?
A pellet screener is a piece of equipment used to separate oversized and undersized pellets from the standard size of pellets. It works by sifting the required type of pellets from the unwanted ones. Some pellets screeners vibrate and shake to separate the good pellets from the bad ones successfully. In contrast, some do not vibrate while separating the wanted pellets from unwanted pellets.
A pellet screener may be made at home and serve the same purpose. The most important thing is to know the suitable pellets size that you consider appropriate. Pellet screeners help assure that the right quality of pellets are packaged and the unacceptable are returned for pelleting. In that case, getting a good mesh is critical.
How to make good quality pellets?
If you want to make good quality pellets, you need to ensure your final product has the correct size, moisture and ash contents. These aspects may be determined during the production process of pellets. You may have the chance to change some of the elements in the final product, but it is essential to do it during the process.
The quality of pellets is essential, mainly if you compete against other pellet manufacturers in the market. Therefore, ensuring you have the best quality of pellets is as vital as producing them. That means you should assess the quality of pellets after they are made.
While assessing the quality of pellets, there are aspects that you need to pay good attention. Such factors include the moisture content, size of the pellets, and ash content. These are only primary features to look for. However, you may need to look at other factors too.
Size: if you produce pellets for fuel, you can consider making pellets ranging from 6-8 millimetres in diameter. The length of the pellet should be three or four times the diameter.
Moisture content: the recommended moisture content of finished pellets should range between eight and ten percent.
Ash content: good quality pellets usually have a low ash content which may fall at 0.7%.
You need to measure the above-mentioned characteristics of your pellets during production progressively. That way, you will control the sizes, moisture, ash content, and other characteristics.
How to test for the moisture content of wood pellets?
You can test your pellets’ moisture and ash content using different types of moisture analyzers. You would be required to crush the wood pellets before placing a sample on a pan support to measure the moisture or ash content. The main reason for crushing the wood pellets is to increase their surface areas.
Moisture and ash content are vital characteristics of wood pellets because they determine the wood pellets’ burn time and heat intensity. An excess of moisture content reduces the pellets’ density and durability, resulting in a weak and soft final product. On the other hand, if the moisture content of the wood pellets is very low, you may have fragile and cracked pellets and may not be as helpful as intended.
