Cutting Edge Pellet-Making Machines

Cutting Edge Pellet-Making Machines ENERGY Alternative Fuels A Wisconsin family that has a lot of experience with feed mill equipment has turned their focus to farm-sized pellet mills They say their latest new mills may be the best biomass pelletizers they ve seen
David and Jode Siedschlag of Waupun Wis are dealers for several brands of pellet mills and related equipment - including Pellet Pros - but they re really excited about the new Tiger Tec pellet mills that recently arrived from China
We ve been making tons of pellets from various products with Tiger Tec s 7 1/2 hp household model for almost a year so we know first hand how well it works It has held up very well We re confident the company s 20 and 30 horsepower models which we just received will work just as well says David The price range is a bit higher than other pelletizers but we feel they re worth it
The Siedschlag s use the Tiger Tec 7 1/2 hp 3-phase model to make pellets to heat their own home They also use a Pellet Pros PP600 which is a 10 hp single phase model that works equally well on some products but not as well on others They do demonstrations with several models so people can see the differences between machines
There s a lot of interest in the higher production pellet-making mills but until now we haven t found a price-effective mill that does the job well We ve tried three other makes and models in the 30 to 40 hp range including our Pellet Pros PP2800 but each have had their own problems says David For now we mainly focus on selling Pellet Pros 10 hp electric and 15 hp diesel models while we work on revisions to our 40 hp demo model that we currently have set up in our shop
The new line of Tiger Tec pellet mills is geared down to run slower and have more torque than other models The design is different than other pelletizers we ve used One big advantage we ve found is that there s not as much need to add a binder such as soybeans or corn starch That s an important issue because a binder adds to the total cost of making pellets Overall we feel the Tiger Tec does a better job making pellets out of straight sawdust due to its quality and design
We ve made pellets out of all kinds of material including leaves old hay grass clippings newspapers cardboard even horse manure and sewer sludge says Jode Some people have even brought us secret products they don t want others to know about which is kind of fun Recently someone brought us apple pulp to pelletize but we still have to find an efficient way to dry products like these We don t have a large source of dry sawdust in our area at this time and since green sawdust just doesn t pelletize developing a drying system is an important piece of the system for us to work on
The couple is in the process of setting up a fully automated pellet-making plant in their shop It will include a 60 hp phase converter so they can operate the new 20 and 30 hp Tiger Tec models Their goal is to make 800 to 1 000 lbs per hour of pellets with the automated setup Their main product for the larger scale automated plant will be corn stalks but they ll also be trying out a semi-load of switchgrass
The system currently consists of a tub grinder hammer mill screener and self-unloading wagons that store various ground-up materials The materials are fed into a farm mixer and then to the pellet mill A home-built counterflow cooler is used to cool the pellets down before being elevated into hopper bins for storage
     Having more than one wagon says David allows us to have different products so we can make a blended pellet if we choose to Our goal is to end up with an inexpensive pellet-making plant that s as automated as possible Another goal is to make people aware of the differences in pellet stoves especially in attempting to burn biomass pellets with high ash or silica content Some stoves just can t handle certain pellets efficiently
The Siedschlag s put a lot of emphasis on educating customers so they occasionally sponsor demonstration days or open houses We want people to know that making pellets is more of an art than a science and there s definitely a learning curve to the process Pellet making in these smaller mills is not as simple as it may seem at first says Jode You can buy pellet-making mills on eBay but you won t get much followup service Our Tiger Tec importer carefully checks out the manufacturer and attends demonstrations to try to ensure we re consistently getting the highest quality equipment at reasonable prices rather than dealing with trading companies We re really happy with the priority that s put on helping us dealers provide service after the sale We don t want to lead anyone astray just to make a sale We want satisfied customers
One drawback with Tiger Tec model is that they currently aren t available with single phase motors so you need either a rotary phase converter or 3-phase power We have new rotary phase converters that sell for $700 Some customers have made their own rotary phase converters says David
The 7 1/2 hp Tiger Tec model sells for $5 950 The new 20 hp Tiger Tec model sells for $12 250 and the 30 hp Tiger Tec model sells for $17 525
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jode and David Siedschlag W7911 Oakwood Rd Waupun Wis 53963 ph 920 324-5844 or 920 210 1233; sales @nighthawkmfg com; www pellets4fuel com

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