Sources of raw material for biomass pelletizer are varied. In countries such as Sweden, the USA and Canada, which produce biomass pellets on large scale with the biomass pelletizing plant, feedstock for wood pellets comes mainly from the mountains of sawdust that would otherwise accumulate next to their numerous huge sawmills. In the UK, where there is less forest, some pellets are imported, although many are made from local sawmill or joinery waste material.
As long as it can eventually be reduced to dust or tine granules, any type of clean wood can be used to make pellets by biomass pelletizer; coniferous, however, is the most commonly used around the world. Deciduous wood co-product is often carefully blended into the mix to optimize consistency of the final product in storage and during combustion. To date, sawmills continue to be the largest single provider of raw materials for biomass pelletizer, followed by timber processors such as joinery yards making doors and windows. Municipal and other arboreal cuttings are a significant potential source for biomass pelletizer and biomass pelletizing plant. Freshly harvested whole trees, too, are being increasingly used to resolve bottlenecks and potential supply problems with sawmill and timber process by-product.
Using arboreal cuttings or whole trees entails significant drying of the wood before putting into biomass pelletizer. Although it adds cost to the process, this could be covered, in theory, by using heat (sometimes freely available surplus heat) from a biomass pelletizing plant. Ideally, all tree bark is removed to avoid raising waste ash levels.
