In the village of Torskoye, Limansky district, Donetsk region, the Prestige mini-plant for processing wheat straw into biofuel has appeared.

The plant began its activities with a small capacity. Now the plant has grown and it has at its disposal thousands of hectares of land and 250 shares, says Alexander Zhuravlev, director of the enterprise.

The production of straw pellets made it possible to create 5 new jobs.

The granules are made from wheat straw, which is usually crushed and left in the fields. After harvesting in 2018, the mini-plant was able to stock tens of thousands of tons of its own raw materials.

The pellet manufacturing process consists of several stages. First, the straw is subjected to grinding, partial grinding and laying under a press to obtain granules. Then it will be moistened in an air conditioner and granulated on a matrix. After that, it is cooled and sieved on a vibrating sieve. This is the final product.

Currently, the company is testing a line that allows producing up to 1.5 tons of fuel pellets per hour. In the future, the plant plans to increase production capacity. Straw pellets are much more profitable than ordinary firewood both in heat transfer (it is 2.2-2.5 times higher) and in price. In addition, they are cheaper than coal. Developed countries in recent years are increasingly shifting to biofuels, summarizes Alexander Zhuravlev.