Wood pellets are small granules made of compressed wood fibers and make excellent fuel. Wood pellets are a refined heating fuel engineered to have high energy density and low ash and moisture content. Pellets are typically made from by-products like sawdust and woodchips from the wood manufacturing industry but are also made from low-grade wood sourced from local timber harvesting operations. Pellets are widely available in Vermont and are a cost-effective heating fuel with several distinct advantages over other fuel types.
Wood pellets are of uniform size and shape (between 1-1½ inches by approximately 1/4-5/16 inches in diameter), making them as easy to store and use as traditional fossil fuels used for heating. Compared to other wood fuels, wood pellets take up much less space in storage because they have a higher energy content by weight (roughly 7,750 Btu per pound at six percent moisture content) due to densification and drying.
Most pellet mills in the region sell pellets in 40-pound bags and in loose bulk form. Numerous companies in the region own and operate specialized bulk pellet delivery trucks that can deliver bulk pellets to customers by the ton. These trucks range in payload size from 8 to 25 tons of capacity and use pneumatic systems to gently off-load the pellets from the truck into on-site fuel storage bins.