8mm Wood Pellets: Specs, Uses and Who Buys Them
8mm wood pellets are the industrial standard. Full specification table, typical buyers, packaging formats, and how they differ from 6mm residential pellets.
The 8 mm wood pellet is the workhorse of industrial biomass. Where 6 mm dominates household stoves, 8 mm is what large boilers, district heating plants, and co-firing power stations consume by the shipload.
Typical 8 mm specification
- Diameter: 8 mm (±1 mm), length 3.15–40 mm
- Moisture: ≤ 10 % (industrial contracts often allow ≤ 12 %)
- Ash content: ≤ 1.2 % for A2 grade, ≤ 3.0 % for industrial grade
- Net calorific value: ≥ 4.4–4.6 kWh/kg as received
- Mechanical durability: ≥ 96.5 %
- Fines (< 3.15 mm): ≤ 1 % at loading
Who buys 8 mm
Commercial boiler operators, greenhouse heating networks, district heat utilities, industrial dryers, and power plants co-firing biomass with coal. Traders also stock 8 mm because it moves in bulk vessel and rail volumes rather than retail bags.
Why the larger diameter
An 8 mm pellet has a lower surface-to-volume ratio, which slows combustion slightly and suits the longer residence times of large grate and fluidised-bed boilers. It also produces fewer fines per tonne during pneumatic conveying, which matters when you are moving 5,000 tonnes rather than five bags.
Packaging
8 mm is normally supplied loose in bulk (walking floor truck, rail wagon, or vessel) or in 1,000 kg big-bags for buyers without silo intake. Bagged 15 kg 8 mm exists but is rare — that format belongs to 6 mm.
Pellet Industries produces 8 mm in ENplus A2 and industrial grades with full third-party analysis at loading.
Pellet Industries ships ENplus A1 and industrial biomass pellets worldwide in 15 kg bags, big-bags, and bulk vessel loads.
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