CPM, the world’s largest manufacturer of pellet mills, pelleting equipment and automation products, is launching a revolutionary new technology to improve the efficiency of wood pellet mills.

The company’s patented Twin Track technology has been developed after a decade of research, with multiple goals of reducing energy demand, ensuring consistent pellet quality and boosting mill capacity.

Twin Track uses two rollers inside the pellet mill, and uniquely, each roller has its own track. The system is designed to push pellets with one long, energy-efficient push per die revolution. This means the required energy (in kWh/t) to move the pellet mass is lower with Twin Track than with 2 or 3-roller machines, which push 2 or 3 times per die revolution.

At the same time, Twin Track provides a surface area which has 43 percent more holes in the die than average. For every single push per die revolution, Twin Track therefore creates a larger product layer, resulting in a greater volume of pellets.

CPM’s research team validated that a higher hole count in the die also facilitates longer ‘baking time’ in the die itself, to make use of natural binding properties (including added binders) and maintain pellet consistency.

Twin Track technology has been extensively tested in real world mill operations, and the higher die hole count has been found to stabilize mill running conditions, due to the higher pellet retention times which help to dampen fluctuations.

Oskar Schaap, sales and marketing director at CPM Europe, commented, “Our goal was to revolutionize the pellet mill from inside, and Twin Track technology does exactly that. Mill operators can now leverage greater energy savings, and greater capacity. And since our technology uses less force in the pellet production process, it will also lower maintenance costs and increase TCO. Twin Track is a win-win for the pelleting industry.”

In the search for improved energy efficiency and optimum pelleting, CPM also wants its new technology to be accessible to all. Twin Track can either be supplied in new machines or be retrofitted to a range of CPM machines, in as little as 4 hours.