PH Briquette Press

[OwenRS]

Hi all,

Has anyone come across the PH Briquette Press ??

http://phbriquettepress.webs.com/

We are a small business that is fed up with sending skips full of chippings and saw dust to land fill with rising prices. We are hopefully investing in a boiler type heater and these should then link together nicely. I know the more you spend the better you get and this is at the bottom of the briquette market but by volume of waste linked to foot print of the machine it looks to suit our needs.

Never heard of them so just wondering if anyone has seen one running or has one to comment on.

Thanks

 

[siggy_7]

Hmmm. I'd check that the economics of that stack up. The quote "Production costs only 40p or less per one hour" ties in with the stated power draw of 3.42kW - using something like 3 units an hour of electric. With the stated production of 6-15kg/hr, that means your briquettes are costing about £25-£70 per tonne, just in electricity. By the time you have added in the boiler as well, I am not sure that you will find you are saving very much if anything at all. If you are burning on site, how about directly firing the boiler with sawdust/chippings? I know that some systems can do that.

 

[OwenRS]

Yeah I thought that as well but all heater companies state the obvious, if you throw the dust in it can combust. One did say put it into a shoe box and then put it in the fire but someone else said that will just smoulder and not give a flame with heat required?
Situation is we currently run around 6-10kw of electric infrared heaters depending on staffing and we are looking to up size by approx double the size. Thoughts were boiler heater to replace electric while at the same time burning our waste.
Is this the right way to think ?

 

[adidat]

hi jeremy

trying to view what i think is your website and its not working on chrome, just a heads up

adidat

 

[Phil Pascoe]

There is another thread that deals with burners that are designed to take sawdust - load them up, light them and leave them untouched until they burn out. Sorry I can't help more - hunt around.

 

[SurreyHills]

Jeremy

The topic has come up quite a bit before and may explain why there haven't been many responses. It seems that there are 2 options briquettes - may not be very economic but would enable you to cater for waste produced in the Summer months. Might be worth giving somebody at SL Hardwoods a call as somebody in a previous post was indicating that they have one and even sell off their excess.

Other option is a workshop stove which can be used to burn sawdust, chippings etc. Prices seem to be reasonable compared to the pellet making machine and may be a cheaper option. See Greenheart for their range http://www.workshopstoves.co.uk/greenheart-workshop-stoves.asp

Old threads worth a read:
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/workshop-stoves-t34417.html
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/making-briquettes-from-wood-waste-t28940-15.html
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/workshop-stove-t64893.html

 

[siggy_7]

You can get biomass boilers that will burn sawdust loose, but the only ones I know of are expensive (like £5k+ expensive). For the size of your operation I would imagine a stove like the Greenheart is the way to go.

 

[OwenRS]

Hello to all,
Just a quick update on our briquette and burner situation.

After along lengthy process we took the plunge and purchase the entry level briquette machine form PH and we have been making briquettes since October and stocking them untill the next portion of funding was available to buy the burner.
I have to say as the main opperator that it does take a good portion of time to get this right. Briquettes are a product that what you put in is what you get out. Saw Dust will NEVER make a briquette it simply falls apart even with 8 ton of hydraulic pressure. Once set (not down to 20 mins) and a good mix of 90% chippings and shavings and 10% saw dust we are now making around 250kg a week of briquettes on a 5 day week 8 hour day. In the eyes of a commercial machine this will never be a money maker but by god is it saving us alot. We now have NO skip on site and convert all of our waste to be burnt for inhouse heating. You simply set it and top up the hopper every 15-20mins when passing.

So to stage 2 of our expansion.
Once we had stored around 3 ton of waste and the extra cash was in we have purchased our hot hair wood burning heater. We have massivly gone over the top with this for 2 reasons.
1 our workshop units back onto houses and we are approx 200 yards from a town centre and we are in a clean air area. Smaller heaters do not apply to this clean air regulation. (Bloody EU)
2 we plan for the years ahead and this new larger heater can cope with any further expansion we may do in the years to come hopefully making a one time investment.

We have purchased the Wood Waste Technology WT5 heater that pumps out 45kw of hot air heating and it is awesome, melting us at the minute. Just getting prices for the ducting to split it between 2 buildings and 2 offices. This truly is the best buy yet and we wish we had moved to this years ago.

Right now zero to landfill and zero to the electricity companies for heating. Love it.

 

[paulm]

Sounds really interesting Jeremy and a great success. Thanks for updating.

Cheers, Paul

 

[Rhossydd]

Right now zero to landfill and zero to the electricity companies for heating. Love it.

Make sure you put that on your sales literature too. A great credit to your business.

 

[kitchenwide]

hi guys i have just bought a second hand ph briquette machine. the heater works the mixer turns . but i cant seam to get the hydraulic motor to fire. am i doing something wrong? i have power to switch if i hold switch on it shows power running through it but wont stay on and the motor does nothing. Help please