Running Your Pellet Stove On Grass Pellets, The Effects?

Wood pellets may be your first choice when it comes to buying fuel for your pellet stove, however really that means you are missing out on a range of local materials that could also be processed into pellet fuels. In the US there is a lot of interest in making fuel pellets for stoves and boilers from grass pellets, or more specifically switchgrass pellets. Switchgrass is a very low maintenance crop that can produce good yields without really any fertilizer. It can also be grown in fields where food crops cannot be grown, therefore it is not case of putting fuel over food. With grass pellets it is possible to have a local energy loop, where the fuel is harvested, processed and then consumed locally.

Running Your Pellet Stove On Grass Pellets, The Effects?

Grass pellets can be produced much cheaper than wood pellets, and in most cases a local energy loop is possible. A local energy loop also means less transportation which reduces the cost to consumer and also keeps carbon emissions to a minimum. It would also help to generate lots of stable local jobs and eliminate dependence on foreign heating oil. There are many benefits to using grass pellets over wood pellets, however there are also a series of challenges. In terms of energy content grass pellets contain roughly the same amount of energy and in some cases even more. The issues with grass pellets come with the amount of ash produced during combustion, and possible clinker formations which my occur. Therefore a quality pellet stove is required.

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Running Your Pellet Stove On Grass Pellets, The Effects?

As the supply of grass can be scaled up a lot quicker than with wood, its means pellet fuel prices would be more predictable and that the supply of pellets could meet demand. The wood pellet fuel market is too heavily dependant on other industries for their sources of wood waste. Most of the sawdust used comes from the timbre industry. However if no timbre is been processed, there is no waste sawdust and therefore no pellets. An example of this was the housing market crash in 2007, where timber production fell dramatically as new home construction almost stopped completely. This therefore led to a supply issue while demand was high. This meant that fuel pellet prices increased dramatically and some people could not get pellets. Therefore grass pellets offer a more stable source of raw material for fuel pellet production.

The Wood Pellet Stoves and Wood Boiler Guide © PelHeat Ltd - Pellet Stove and Grass Pellets