"Now we are trying to keep a bag of grass pellets in the range of $175-200. In the future when quality standards have been worked out then could sell for closer to $225-250 or more depending on wood pellet and oil prices. We want to undercut prices of other heating fuels but at the same time many people are willing to a pay a premium for local fuel that supports local producers.
The components of this mill costs around $150K but that does not include the many hours of staff and volunteer time. We estimate that a future 4 ton/hr mill might be around $350K."
...the technology hasn’t sped up to the whole grass pellet
theory. Currently there are no manufacturers who specifically
design and create stoves capable of handling grass pellets. There
are a few stoves however that have proven to work efficiently
enough to make this process go smoother. Bixby Energy’s Maxfire
corn stove, Harman’s corn stove and CountryFlames’ corn stove have
all been used in tests to burn grass successfully. The problem
with the grass pellets is the ash content left behind. Wood
pellet
stoves are not capable of handling these pellets. The parts get
clogged and it just proves to be more work keeping them clean and
useable. Corn stoves on the other hand were originally
designed to handle high contents of ash, so they’ve become a
natural choice during testing.
"Now we are trying to keep a bag of grass pellets in the range of $175-200. In the future when quality standards have been worked out then could sell for closer to $225-250 or more depending on wood pellet and oil prices.. We want to undercut prices of other heating fuels but at the same time many people are willing to a pay a premium for local fuel that supports local producers.
The components of this mill costs around $150K but that does not include the many hours of staff and volunteer time. We estimate that a future 4 ton/hr mill might be around $350K."
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Ben Pyles here, former Vermonter: now at UC Davis- Looking to return
to the NE region in the near future.
You make an interesting point-
I would be interested in the mechanism of carbon depletion ,
especially at depth, of a permaculture system- Is the idea that
grasses do a root uptake of carbon and redeposit it in the foliage,
which is then removed- Thus, even with surface application of the
carbon containing fertilizers, the carbon is on a upper soil horizon?
Am I getting the gist of this?
I have been planting the sterile hybrid Miscanthus giganteus for test
material for densification projects. Partially the reason I am
interested in it is the information from long term European plots;
plots that show additional carbon is sequestered in a range of soil
horizons, and that soil carbon is improved year upon year.
(This is based on fields that allow for nutrient redistribution in the
fall, and a winter/ early spring harvest of the standing stalks. This
harvest plan results in a relatively low ash, dry material in an off
season harvest time- I do not have data on green harvest of the
plant).
A friend Near Bristol is growing test plots to verify the
winter-hardiness of some cultivars. A former UVM animal nutritionist
ran cattle feeding trials of giant Miscanthus several years ago, and
the data looked good for the nutrient profile and palatability. I
believe his patch is still growing ~20 years later-
Cheers- Ben
I ran some general grass pellets through my American Heritage
Multi-fuel stove that had pretty high ash (~5.2-7%) and it handled it
pretty well- I have a short run to a masonry flue through stainless
pipe (340 stainless IIRC)- and some more fly ash noticed, but no
pitting after a couple tons.
Cheers- Ben Pyles
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