Hardwood Pellets and Soft Wood Pellets Comparison

Traditionally, hardwood is always a better choice for hearth combustion compared to softwood. However, when it comes to pellet stoves, the traditional concept is not that accurate. Hardwood logs are more efficient than softwood logs, because hardwood is denser than softwood. But in the process of pelletizing, the difference between hardwood and softwood is reduced.

Prices

Hardwood pellets are often sold as high quality wood pellets, and their price is also higher than softwood pellets’. The main reason is that hardwood is more expensive as raw material than softwood. If a wood pellets producer is to earn appreciable profit by pelletizing hardwood, he must sells the pellets in a higher price than the softwood ones’.

Heat Generation

The softwood pellets produce 10%-20% BTU of heat in their combustion. This means the softwood pellets possess higher combustion value than the hardwood ones. The difference is that the softwood pellets contain more moisture than the hardwood pellets, which makes them burn more rapidly.

Ash Content

The requirement for environmental protection and clean energy are two problems the pellet stove users would consider when purchasing wood pellets. There have already been researches that compared the ash content between hardwood pellets and softwood pellets. The conclude is that the ash content in the hardwood pellets is normally three times to it in the softwood pellets. Although the ash content is always lower than 1% no matter in hardwood pellets or softwood pellets and the effect caused by their difference is very tiny, the difference could be more obvious in long term use.

Conclusion

The hardwood pellets and softwood pellets does not vary too obviously like hardwood logs and softwood logs. The wood pellets are all made by wood pellet mills, the pelletizing process in the pellet mill results in uniform density and weight no matter what type of wood is used to produce the pellets. This makes the hardwood no longer a priority when once it has been made into pellets, and the softwood pellets may be equal to the hardwood ones judging from all aspects.

GEMCO provides D-type and R-type flat die pellet mills. The R-type pellet mills are especially suitable to produce wood pellets. No matter it is hardwood pellets or softwood pellets you desire, we can always offer you the best suited pellet mill.