22 FEBRUARY 2014 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
FUELS
By STEPHEN BENNETT
Pelletized
For fuel oil dealers considering adding wood pellets to their
lineup, the Pellet Fuels Institute offers information, guidance
– and contact with pellet manufacturers
T
he wood pellet market today consists largely of
bagged product, but there is opportunity to grow
the bulk segment of the market and fuel oil deal-
ers are well-positioned do it according to pellet
industry experts.
"Who is used to taking fuel in bulk, storing it in a tank and
then loading it on a smaller truck for delivery?" said Bruce Lisle,
chief executive officer of Energex Corp., a wood pellet manu-
facturer based in Mifflintown, Pa. "It's a natural."
Of approximately 3 million tons of wood pellets produced
for the U.S. market in 2013, most all of it was bagged and sold
through big box stores and smaller outlets such as hearth stores
and hardware stores, according to the Pellet Fuels Institute, a
trade group based in Arlington, Va.
The bulk market is far less developed than the bagged
market, said Jennifer Hedrick, PFI's executive director. But,
Hedrick said, the bulk business is growing, "particularly in
the Northeast." There, some companies that are long-time
dealers of fuel oil are gaining a foothold in delivering pellets,
especially among commercial, industrial and institutional
users. Hospitals, schools and municipal government build-
ings are examples of users that have had wood pellet boiler
systems installed and are receiving regular bulk deliveries of
wood pellets.
"When institutions realize the cost savings that can be
gleaned from switching from something to pellets it certainly
makes it an attractive option," Hedrick said. "In New England,
when fuel oil costs are high, use of pellets increases rather sig-
nificantly," she said.
The PFI website (pelletheat.org) includes a page to help
compare the price of pellet fuel with prices of other forms of
energy.
There is potential to convert residential customers from
bagged pellets to bulk, some pellet manufacturers said, as
some customers grow weary of wrestling the 40-pound bags
and begin to see the advantages of systems that store bulk
A pellet truck manufactured by Trans-Tech Industries, Brewer, Me. It features a 15-ton capacity aluminum tank, 54,000 pound GVWR truck chassis, and feed hoppers with aeration
beds, according to the Trans-Tech website. Using a fully pneumatic pellet delivery system, Trans-Tech says, the truck can deliver one ton of pellets in less than four minutes.
