Bulk wood pellet delivery truck

It’s a chicken and egg scenario when you want to develop a wood pellet heating market in any region. Wood pellet heating customers need a reliable and affordable supply of quality pellets and a delivery service needs a critical mass of customers to make investments. This problem is at the core of wood energy development and Canada and will rely on a combination of brave entrepreneurs, government funding and market conditions.

In 2016, while working with Biothermic, we began the process to build a pellet delivery truck to service NorthWestern Ontario because our focus at the time was developing wood pellet heating projects. We wanted to design and supply pellet boiler systems centered around Froling boilers but potential customers were reluctant without a safe pellet supply. We decided to take a leap and break through the chicken and egg paradox.

An example of a B Train pneumatic delivery truck built by Trooper of Austria for a customer in France.  This truck can carry up to 25 tonnes of wood pellets

This truck that we built features a silo built by Trooper of Austria, a world leader in pneumatic bulk conveyance. We wanted to lean on their experience to avoid growing pains that may come with a North American manufacturer that doesn’t have vast experience with wood pellets. The silo is mounted on a Palfinger hook lift chassis and can be quickly removed so that the truck can be used for other purposes, it’s important that the truck has as much in service time as possible as it represents over 50% of the capital investment.

This truck has since moved to another Ontario first project on Manitoulin Island where it uses a purpose built silo storage hub and delivers to dozens of small and large pellet heating customers locally.

Working with pellets is 50% science and 50% art. The fuel is variable and unpredictable sometimes: good technology must be merged with hands on experience to find success.