Setting up a local wood chip fuel supply chain

[Doing it for the kids]

has anyone else tried this?

It seems the big boys buy chip for next to nothing off the tree surgeons / mills, dry it themselves and then sell it on.

Other options are buying logs in any shape or form, chipping it then drying as well. Prices are apparantly £60 - 80 / t which means there must be quite a margin somewhere. Admitidly they do spend a lot on haulage moving fuel from one end of the country to the other, which seems daft to me.

I would like to set up a local supply chain which keeps the fuel miles down.

I have a lot of drying shed which don’t do much work after October, a load of local tree surgeons wanting to tip tons of chip here, and and also their logs which mostly come on in
1 ton plus lumps. I already have the kit needed to move material around.

My thoughts are hiring a screener to sift out fines and big bits, dry it then get a local haulier to deliver it to local boilers. The hardest part appears to be quality control and finding the end user.

If I can make it work there should be a bigger slice of the cake for the tree surgeons and I by default as there is less haulage costs.

It can’t be ask stright forward as this though, what would others suggests? @A1an

 

[d williams]

has anyone else tried this?

It seems the big boys buy chip for next to nothing off the tree surgeons / mills, dry it themselves and then sell it on.

Other options are buying logs in any shape or form, chipping it then drying as well. Prices are apparantly £60 - 80 / t which means there must be quite a margin somewhere. Admitidly they do spend a lot on haulage moving fuel from one end of the country to the other, which seems daft to me.

I would like to set up a local supply chain which keeps the fuel miles down.

I have a lot of drying shed which don’t do much work after October, a load of local tree surgeons wanting to tip tons of chip here, and and also their logs which mostly come on in
1 ton plus lumps. I already have the kit needed to move material around.

My thoughts are hiring a screener to sift out fines and big bits, dry it then get a local haulier to deliver it to local boilers. The hardest part appears to be quality control and finding the end user.

If I can make it work there should be a bigger slice of the cake for the tree surgeons and I by default as there is less haulage costs.

It can’t be ask stright forward as this though, what would others suggests? @A1an

A screen will be a must for you also you may want to screen twice green will be a problem in tree gang waste

 

[renewablejohn]

has anyone else tried this?

It seems the big boys buy chip for next to nothing off the tree surgeons / mills, dry it themselves and then sell it on.

Other options are buying logs in any shape or form, chipping it then drying as well. Prices are apparantly £60 - 80 / t which means there must be quite a margin somewhere. Admitidly they do spend a lot on haulage moving fuel from one end of the country to the other, which seems daft to me.

I would like to set up a local supply chain which keeps the fuel miles down.

I have a lot of drying shed which don’t do much work after October, a load of local tree surgeons wanting to tip tons of chip here, and and also their logs which mostly come on in
1 ton plus lumps. I already have the kit needed to move material around.

My thoughts are hiring a screener to sift out fines and big bits, dry it then get a local haulier to deliver it to local boilers. The hardest part appears to be quality control and finding the end user.

If I can make it work there should be a bigger slice of the cake for the tree surgeons and I by default as there is less haulage costs.

It can’t be ask stright forward as this though, what would others suggests? @A1an

Need permission from your local authority to run a tree station as its a waste handling facility. Doubt whether you will actually get it as there cracking down on them. Lot of farmers around here used to run similar operations and have all been shut down for breaking the rules on operating waste facilities. I have managed to keep my operation but only because I exploit the share farming rules.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

A screen will be a must for you also you may want to screen twice green will be a problem in tree gang waste

Thanks.

What size so you screen out / want to keep in!?

 

[A1an]

Can’t remember where in the country you are but AW Jenkinsons are a good company to approach. I found them very straight forward and collect which saves hassle.

If it’s timber they will have a market for it.

 

[d williams]

Thanks.

What size so you screen out / want to keep in!?

That will depend on your market gr30 or 50 a lot don't like fines

 

[d williams]

Can’t remember where in the country you are but AW Jenkinsons are a good company to approach. I found them very straight forward and collect which saves hassle.

If it’s timber they will have a market for it.

Cumbria with depot and lorry all over the country linked in with stobarts wouldn't release full value dealing with them

 

[busy daddy]

You will also struggle to find anyone who will chip arbwaste

 

[Goweresque]

Isn't there an issue with using arb waste in renewable energy systems? In that it can't be certified as sustainable? Ie a woodland owner can show they are replanting trees to replace the ones removed, but when a tree surgeon takes out Mrs Smiths big beech tree he can't prove she's going to plant another one?

This is what my tree surgeon friend told me, as he was moaning about the pathetic price that he gets offered for his woodchip from the likes of Stobarts or Jenkinsons.

 

[woodworm]

Can’t remember where in the country you are but AW Jenkinsons are a good company to approach. I found them very straight forward and collect which saves hassle.

If it’s timber they will have a market for it.

You're the only one who thinks so then, all I hear of is extremely low prices being offered and then complaints about whatever they pick up

 

[A1an]

You're the only one who thinks so then, all I hear of is extremely low prices being offered and then complaints about whatever they pick up

Never had 1 complaint since the day we started with them. I regularly ask for feedback on the chip we sell them but never had a problem, speaking to the drivers they do say that loads are sampled when they tip.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

From what I can tell the end users pays an awful lot, the supplier of the material (tree surgeons) get paid next to nothing, the haulage firms do ok, contract drying is far from profitable somwhere someone is taking a hefty cut which must leave the big boys controlling it all.

Aw Jenkinson to be fair have been fair with me.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

That will depend on your market gr30 or 50 a lot don't like fines

Yet to get end users agreed but In talks with a few.

Have you any idea what % of an ‘average’ are tree surgeons chip would get sieved out? Massively determined by the chipper, material, etc

My consultants see no problem with me using local arb waste for biomass.

 

[renewablejohn]

Yet to get end users agreed but In talks with a few.

Have you any idea what % of an ‘average’ are tree surgeons chip would get sieved out? Massively determined by the chipper, material, etc

My consultants see no problem with me using local arb waste for biomass.

I dont rate your consultant if he has not explained the difficulty of using arb waste as RHI approved woodchip.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

That’s worrying - they advise OFGEM.

I’ll ask the question, thanks!

So what do Eddie stoBart and the like do with all the chip they buy for £3 / ton then?

 

[d williams]

Yet to get end users agreed but In talks with a few.

Have you any idea what % of an ‘average’ are tree surgeons chip would get sieved out? Massively determined by the chipper, material, etc

My consultants see no problem with me using local arb waste for biomass.

Arb waste will full of dirt green and only any good for green waste compost really they will all have different chippers usually sweepings and their chippers won't have screens in them will be 50% plus m/c so your process costs won't make it viable for chip boilers I would say a farm 2000 would burn it OK a d more industrial boilers used for on floor drying but not for the domestic market

 

[renewablejohn]

That’s worrying - they advise OFGEM.

I’ll ask the question, thanks!

So what do Eddie stoBart and the like do with all the chip they buy for £3 / ton then?

Send it to Drax

 

[d williams]

That’s worrying - they advise OFGEM.

I’ll ask the question, thanks!

So what do Eddie stoBart and the like do with all the chip they buy for £3 / ton then?

£3 ton hope you've a good gate fee on that as will cost you most of it to load that will be going into big chip burning plants making electricity

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Arb waste will full of dirt green and only any good for green waste compost really they will all have different chippers usually sweepings and their chippers won't have screens in them will be 50% plus m/c so your process costs won't make it viable for chip boilers I would say a farm 2000 would burn it OK a d more industrial boilers used for on floor drying but not for the domestic market

The batch boilers love it, I think the chipped logs may be ok for chip boilers but the arb chip is not going to have the umph I suspecf

 

[turbofarming]

I keep trying loads from AW but not getting on well with it at all.

My CHP doesnt like it at all. Ive had grates full of nails, bits of chipboard, bits of pallet in loads etc etc. They tell me its all 100% virgin and no idea where any of the crap is coming from but someones telling porkies somewhere.

You can literally see on the pressure charts when it starts to burn their wood.