Used Furniture and Waste Wood Pellet Line — Recycling Facility Project Reaches Test-Run Stage in Germany

A waste wood recycling facility in the Ruhr region of Germany has reached the test-run stage on its 6 t/h pellet production line, which processes a mixed feedstock of used furniture waste and general waste wood collected through the region's municipal recycling streams.

Waste wood from furniture and demolition sources presents a contamination challenge that clean sawmill residue doesn't — particleboard fragments (with adhesive content), painted or coated wood surfaces, and occasional metal fasteners (screws, nails, hinges) that weren't fully removed during initial sorting.

The wood pellet production line therefore includes a metal detection and removal stage ahead of the grinding equipment — a magnetic separator plus a metal detector with automatic reject function, positioned before the hammer mill to catch ferrous contamination that could otherwise damage grinding components or, worse, end up embedded in finished pellets.

Beyond the metal removal stage, the line follows a fairly standard configuration: hammer mill, drum dryer (waste wood moisture varies considerably depending on source and storage conditions — this buyer's incoming material has tested anywhere from 15% to 35% moisture depending on the batch), ring die wood pellet mill, and cooler.

Pellets are 6mm diameter, classified for industrial fuel use rather than residential heating pellet standards, given the mixed waste wood feedstock includes materials — particleboard with adhesive, painted surfaces — that wouldn't meet the stricter chemical emission standards applied to residential wood pellets in much of Europe.

Test-run results so far have been mixed in one specific area — the metal detector's reject rate has been higher than the buyer initially expected, running around 2-3% of incoming material by weight being rejected due to metal content, more than the under-1% they'd estimated based on their sorting process upstream. This isn't a problem with RICHI's equipment — the detection system is working as designed — but it does mean the buyer is now reviewing their upstream sorting process to reduce metal contamination before material reaches the pellet line, since each reject event causes a brief conveyor stoppage.

Aside from this operational note for the buyer to address, the pelletizing equipment itself has performed within expected parameters during test runs, and full production startup is anticipated within the next couple of weeks.