5 T/H Wood Pellet Plant in Ghana

RICHI MACHINERY

The Existing Buildings Set the Flow Before the Machines Did

The inquiry arrived in September 2023 after the customer had leased a 1,500 m² western building and a 2,000 m² eastern building in Tema. Both had concrete floors and steel frames, but neither had been designed as a pellet factory. The 8 m eave height was workable for size reduction and pelleting, but it limited how much vertical buffering could be added without structural changes.

The customer’s first question was direct: “Can a complete 5 T/H line operate across these two buildings without rebuilding them?”

A site review showed that the buildings were only about 15 m apart. Building 1 had better truck access for waste wood; Building 2 had better access for finished-goods loading. Keeping those advantages was more valuable than forcing the entire line into one structure.

The customer had planned roughly US$300,000 for equipment and installation. The completed fixed investment reached about US$320,000 once international freight, local modifications, electrical work, installation and startup needs were included.

The final concept treated the two buildings as separate process zones connected by one protected material bridge.

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Building 1 Handles Contamination Before Fine Grinding

The 1,500 m² western building is the dirty side of the process. Raw furniture and wood residues are received here, inspected, reduced in size and cleaned of metal before fine material is allowed to move toward the pellet section.

Zone 1 – Raw Material Storage (700m²)
The south end is used for short-term clean wood storage. Around 500 tons can be buffered at one time, which is roughly 10–12 production days at the 5 T/H schedule. Because the line has no thermal dryer, incoming material must already be sufficiently dry for biomass pelleting and is protected from rain after acceptance.

The acceptance rule is strict: no painted, laminated, chemically treated or glue-rich waste is allowed into the fuel stream. Furniture residue is useful only when it is clean wood. Loads with coatings, plastic or questionable treatment are rejected before they enter the shredder and dust system.

Zone 2 – Crushing and Grinding (800m² combined)
The northwest area handles coarse reduction before fine grinding.
A 55 kW chipper reduces prepared wood after any required pre-shredding.
Three 75 kW hammer mills then work in parallel through 6 mm screens so long stringy material does not reach the high-speed grinders intact.

Magnetic separation is installed between coarse reduction and fine grinding. This is especially important for furniture-derived feedstock because nails, screws and staples can enter with otherwise clean wood. Metal is removed before it reaches hammer-mill screens, conveyors and the pellet presses.

The crusher and hammer mills share a centralized aspiration system with cyclone pre-separation, bag filtration and a 15 m exhaust stack. Airflow is balanced by pickup point so the three grinders can operate together without one branch starving another of extraction capacity.

Zone 3 – Reserved Space (300m²)
The remaining area is kept open for maintenance access, temporary feedstock segregation or future pre-processing equipment. Keeping this space free is more useful than filling the building with machinery that the current 12,000 T/Y plan does not require.

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Building 2 Is Sized Around Two MZLH678 Pellet Mills

The eastern building contains the clean downstream section: dry-material buffering, pelleting, cooling, screening, packing and finished-goods storage. Separating this area from furniture receiving reduces metal, coarse dust and truck traffic around the finished product.

Zone 1 – Pelleting Area (300m²)
Two MZLH678 biomass pellet mills are installed for the 5 T/H line. Each press uses a 200 kW main motor and is rated at approximately 2.5–3.0 T/H. Together they provide 5–6 T/H of installed capacity, enough to meet the 12,000 T/Y target without multiplying small presses simply to reach the headline tonnage.

The two presses normally share the load rather than running one unit at its maximum while the other stands idle. That gives the operator room to respond to density changes, die wear and short maintenance work while keeping the factory close to its 5 T/H sustained production target.

The line relies on the natural lignin in clean wood rather than routine binder addition. Pellet quality is controlled through incoming moisture, particle size, feed rate, die condition and compression ratio. Operators adjust those variables by material behaviour instead of relying on a fixed temperature or pressure claim.

Zone 2 – Finished Goods Storage (1,400m²)
Fresh pellets do not go directly into warehouse piles. A counterflow cooler and screener reduce temperature and separate loose fines before finished 8 mm pellets enter the storage area. The warehouse holds the dispatch buffer while forklifts keep inbound packaging traffic separate from the pelleting section.

The finished-goods area can hold several hundred tons of packaged product, giving the customer room to assemble truckloads without slowing daily production. Storage is kept dry and ventilated, and hot pellets are excluded from stacking.

Connecting the Two Buildings
The 15 m yard between buildings remains open to vehicles. Ground wood is elevated to an enclosed 6 m-high conveyor bridge, crosses the traffic lane, then drops into a buffer bin in Building 2. The bridge keeps material dry, avoids repeated loader handling and preserves truck access through the center of the site.

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Equipment Capacity Follows the 12,000 T/Y Target

Equipment package (EXW basis): approximately US$218,000

The customer purchased the grapple loaders, forklifts and wheel loaders locally in Ghana. Local sourcing reduced the imported package size and kept routine service for mobile equipment within the local dealer network.

Shipping: Four 40-foot containers departed Qingdao in November 2023 and arrived at Tema Port, Ghana in December. The project basis includes about US$7,200 of sea freight plus about US$2,500 for customs clearance and inland delivery.

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The Process Crosses the Yard Only Once

The 5 T/H wood pellet plant construction project in Ghana keeps all dirty size-reduction work in Building 1, crosses the yard as clean ground fibre and finishes the product in Building 2.

Step 1 – Raw material receiving
Clean wood and selected furniture residues enter Building 1. Loads are inspected for paint, laminate, plastic, preservatives and excessive moisture before acceptance. Questionable material is rejected rather than blended into the fuel stream.

Step 2 – Crushing
Oversize pieces are pre-shredded when necessary and then reduced by the chipper to a manageable intermediate size. This protects the downstream hammer mills from long stringy pieces and irregular furniture components.

Step 3 – Grinding
Three parallel hammer mills reduce prepared wood through 6 mm screens. Material distribution between the mills is balanced so one grinder does not become the permanent bottleneck while the others run lightly loaded.

Step 4 – Magnetic separation
Ferrous contamination is removed before the ground fibre leaves Building 1. The magnet is checked routinely because furniture-derived feedstock can contain hidden fasteners even after visual receiving inspection.

Step 5 – Transfer to Building 2
A bucket elevator lifts the ground material to the enclosed overhead bridge. The 15 m transfer crosses the vehicle lane at about 6 m height and discharges into a buffer bin on the clean production side.

Step 6 – Pelleting
Material from the buffer bin feeds two wood pellet extruder machines configured as MZLH678 presses. Each unit contributes about 2.5–3.0 T/H of installed capacity. The standard finished product is an 8 mm industrial biomass pellet.

Step 7 – Cooling and storage
Fresh pellets enter forced counterflow cooling before screening. This removes retained heat and reduces the risk of condensation, softening and bag damage that would come from relying only on a long warehouse conveyor.

Step 8 – Bagging and shipping
The plant can supply bagged or bulk industrial customers. Packing and dispatch are scheduled around confirmed orders so the 1,400 m² finished-goods zone remains a turnover buffer rather than a long-term hot-storage area.

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Commissioning Proved That Feedstock Preparation Was the Real Risk

Startup work identified three practical issues that now form part of the plant’s normal operating checklist.

Problem 1 – Long furniture fibres overloaded grinding.
Some incoming pieces were too stringy for stable hammer-mill feeding and began wrapping or blinding screens instead of breaking cleanly.

Adjustment: A locally sourced pre-shredder was placed ahead of the chipper for difficult furniture pieces. Coarse pre-cutting now happens before fine size reduction, reducing the chance that long fibres reach the hammer mills intact.

Problem 2 – Dust airflow was uneven between grinders.
One common extraction line did not distribute suction evenly when all three hammer mills were operating.

Adjustment: The ductwork was rebalanced with dedicated pickup points and dampers. Operators now check differential pressure and filter condition rather than waiting for visible dust to indicate a problem.

Problem 3 – Pellet durability changed by wood mix.
Early batches showed that dry furniture offcuts and other wood residues did not compress identically even when the screen size stayed the same.

Adjustment: Feed rate, die condition and compression settings on the wood pellet presses were tuned against the actual fibre mix. Quality release is based on finished-pellet checks rather than one promotional durability number.

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Operating Cost Should Be Tracked Per Saleable Ton

Once the wood pellet production line stabilized, the customer shifted from a simple monthly profit estimate to a per-ton operating view. That is more useful because feedstock price, power tariff, die life and packaging mix can all change during the year.

Sales planning is handled separately from operating cost:

The page does not use a fixed monthly-profit or three-month-payback promise. Actual margin depends on accepted wood cost, electricity, lease, packaging, transport, maintenance and the price negotiated with each industrial user.

The completed fixed investment is approximately US$320,000, including the US$218,000 equipment package, about US$9,700 for international and inland logistics, roughly US$25,000 for local installation, and the remaining project budget for site modifications, electrical work and startup needs.

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Tema Gives the Project an Industrial Customer Base

This biomass pellet plant in Ghana is positioned around industrial heat rather than household cooking fuel. As a waste wood pellet plant in Ghana, The Tema area gives the customer access to manufacturing and processing users that can receive regular truckloads, store dry pellets and operate compatible boilers or furnaces.

• Industrial users can evaluate pellets against their current delivered heat cost rather than against household charcoal prices
• Furniture and woodworking activities create a residue stream, but only clean untreated wood is suitable for this fuel route
• Local biomass use is already part of Ghana’s energy system, so the commercial task is matching consistent pellets to equipment that can burn them reliably

The difficult part is not proving that biomass exists. It is building repeat sales around a consistent specification. Industrial customers compare delivered price, ash handling, storage, combustion stability and supply reliability before switching fuel.

The customer therefore develops sales through repeat industrial accounts rather than assuming every ton will clear at one published price. A 12,000 T/Y plant can serve several medium users and still avoid depending on one unverified anchor contract.

For an industrial wood pellet plant in Ghana, and especially a Tema wood pellet factory, keeping customers within a practical trucking radius also matters. The value of low-cost waste wood can disappear quickly if finished pellets have to travel long distances overland.

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RICHI Scope Included the Link Between the Buildings

For this 5 T/H wood pellet plant in Ghana, the supplied scope covered both the machinery and the site-specific transfer problem:

• Layout design – Separate size-reduction and clean pelleting zones linked by the enclosed overhead conveyor bridge.
• Equipment package – Chipper, three hammer mills, two MZLH678 presses, cooling/screening, conveyors and dust collection.
• Installation supervision – Site support for equipment alignment, bridge transfer, electrical interfaces and dust-system balancing.
• Operator training – Receiving inspection, metal removal, feed-rate control, die changes, cooling and routine troubleshooting.
• Spare parts kit – Ring-die and roller wear parts, hammer-mill screens, bearings, belts and filter consumables.

Remote support remains useful after commissioning because the most common questions are operational—material changes, screen wear, die loading and dust pressure—rather than failures that require a complete line shutdown.

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For Ghana Start With Feedstock Cleanliness and Building Flow

If you are planning a 5 T/H wood pellet production line in Ghana, the first design inputs should be the actual buildings, wood-residue condition and industrial customer radius—not a generic equipment list.

• Two-building layouts can work well. Use protected overhead transfer when ground-level conveying would interfere with trucks or forklifts.
• Dust and metal control are production requirements. Furniture residues bring both fine dust and hidden fasteners into the receiving risk profile.
• Do not build the financial case around one unsupported sales contract. Use confirmed customer demand, delivered fuel value and realistic transport distance.
• Buy mobile handling equipment where local service is stronger. The imported package should focus on the process machinery that defines pellet quality.

Adding a second shift could increase annual output, but only after raw-material contracts, cooling, packing labor, electricity supply and finished-product sales are checked against the longer operating schedule. More hours do not automatically mean the current site can double production without changes.

For a wood waste recycling plant in Ghana, send the building dimensions, annual clean wood tonnage, moisture range, contamination risk and target pellet buyers. Those inputs determine whether the site needs drying, additional metal separation, more storage or a different MZLH configuration.