Making charcoal from sawdust is a popular solution for sawdust recycling. We all know that sawdust refers to the powdered wood chips that are scattered from the wood during wood processing. In many sawmills and furniture factories, waste wood of all shapes and sizes is often piled up. This waste wood, also known as leftovers, is composed of sawdust, wood chips, shavings, etc.

In this article, we will introduce the processes of making charcoal from sawdust and the machines required for each process. For wood scraps with a size larger than 5mm, in addition to the solution introduced in this article, another solution is also applicable. We will mention it at the end of this article.

sawdust

Step 1: Crushing wood waste

In the above content, we mentioned that sawdust contains wood scraps of different sizes, so for the smooth progress of subsequent production, pretreatment of crushing sawdust is required. The uniform sawdust can reduce the drying time and the energy consumption of the dryer in the drying process. Besides, it can also reduce the wear of the sawdust briquette machine in the briquettes making process and ensure the uniform density of the wood briquettes. Of course, if your raw materials are fine sawdust with a size less than 5mm, this step can be omitted.

The machine required for the crushing process is a crusher, you can visit the page of the crusher for more details.

Step 2: Drying sawdust

In many wood processing plants, sawdust is usually stacked in a corner of the workshop, and some are directly stacked in the open field. The humidity of sawdust is far from less than 12%, which is required for making briquettes, so it needs to be dried. Even for the raw materials that are stacked indoors, we recommend drying for pretreatment unless you actually measure and confirm that the humidity is below 12%. Drying sawdust can greatly improve the yield of sawdust briquettes.

The machine needed in this step is a dryer. For different drying capacities, air-flow dryers can be selected for small ones, and rotary drum dryers can be selected for large output.

Step 3: Making sawdust briquette

After crushing and drying, the size of the material can be less than 3mm, and the humidity is less than 12%. Next is sawdust briquetting. Obviously, the machine required is a sawdust briquette machine. The finished sawdust briquette is hollow, the shape of the mold is square and hexagonal, and the diameter of the sawdust rod can be 50mm, 70mm, and 80mm.

According to our communication with many customers, the common problems in sawdust briquette production are mainly the operation of the briquette machine and the repair of the screw.

Step 4: Carbonizing sawdust briquette

Carbonization is the last step in the production of sawdust charcoal. The sawdust briquettes undergo high-temperature pyrolysis in the absence of air and are finally converted into charcoal. There are two ways to achieve carbonization, one is to use a traditional charcoal kiln, and the other is to use a carbonization furnace. Compared with the traditional charcoal kiln, the carbonization furnace can greatly reduce the flue gas emission and can recycle wood vinegar and wood tar (because they are only by-products of carbonization, so the amount is not large).

With the increasingly strict environmental protection policies in various countries and regions, more and more customers choose carbonization furnaces. We have different types of carbonization furnaces to meet customer needs. For sawdust briquettes carbonization, you can choose a hoisting carbonization furnace or a horizontal carbonization furnace. Their working principle is the same, the difference is how the material is loaded and unloaded. The former is vertical loading and unloading, the latter is horizontal loading and unloading.

Another solution of making charcoal from sawdust

At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that for some large-sized wood wastes, such as shavings, wood chips, and even lumber, branches, etc., there is another solution that can be used. This scheme is to first carbonize wood wastes to charcoal and then shape the charcoal briquettes. The core process is Carbonizing–crushing–mixing–briquetting. Please visit the page linked below for more information.

The above are the core processes and equipment for making charcoal from sawdust. In actual production, we will add corresponding auxiliary equipment according to the specific requirements of customers, such as conveyors, distributors, smoke and dust removal systems, etc. If you want to know more about charcoal production or need to buy charcoal-making machinery, please don’t hesitate to leave us a message.

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