Corn, rice, and wheat are just a few examples of the many grain plants that make up the straw. Each year, some countries can produce 23 million metric tons of straw. Heat, animal feed, and animal bedding all benefit from using straw pellets. Making raw straw pellets is a multi-step process. Cells (80% to 90%) and lumens (5% to 10%) make up the original residue (10-20 percent). Water is soluble in both silica and extractives.

Below are step-by-step instructions on how to make straw pellets.

Straw Pellets: How Do You Make Them?

Here are six steps on how to make straw pellets:

Prepare the Raw Materials

After harvesting, straws are mixed with dust and other foreign materials, such as metals, stones, and plastics. In addition to damaging pelleting mills, foreign components can also lower the quality of pellets. Because of this, they must be eliminated.

Grinding

Straw biomass is a tubular material that needs to be crushed to the right size before it can be used in the manner described above. Most of the shredding is done by cutting the straw into pieces that can be used in a pelletizer.

Drying

This part of making straw pellets is often skipped, but it is still important to know about. When straw is delivered, it has about 15% moisture, which is perfect for making pellets. When sawdust is also used, the process includes drying.

Conditioning

This is the process of making the straw harder until it reaches the right level. It uses steam or water, as well as glues and other substances, to do this. Conditioning is needed to get to the right temperature so that the lignin, which is found in raw straw and acts as the glue, can be pliable and melt. When pelletizing, too much wear can be stopped by making the material harder.

Pelletizing

The primary step in making straw pellets is to use a straw ring die pellet press. During this test, think about the straw's moisture content, the fibers' strength, the particles' size, and the natural binders. All of these affect the quality of the pellets. It is also essential to keep pellets from breaking, getting too hot, or getting stuck in the pellet die.

These problems could cause the cost of energy to go up, the pellet mill to break down, and the quality of the pellets to go down. So, it's essential to use a high-quality straw, and a thicker pellet dies to increase the compression length and make better quality pellets.

Cooling and Screening

Most straws will be hot and soft after being pelletized. Then, they should be cooled until they reach the right hardness level while fine particles are removed. The final product will have less water, but it will have a higher bulk density. Often, the moisture level drops from 15-20% to less than 10%, while the density goes up from 130 kg/m3 to about 600 kg/m3.

Final Thoughts

Making straw pellets is a popular thing to do in Europe, and the finished product is in high demand by animals. It is also burned to make heat when it is cold. When making straw pellets, it is essential to use moist biomass from high-quality farms. Get rid of anything that could hurt the mill, which costs a lot to run and keep up when foreign materials and low-quality straw are around.

If you have plans of getting into a pellet straw production, you need to invest on getting the machine. Find a straw pellet machine for sale so you can save money and allot it on other things you might be needing.