Plastic processing equipment company cites growth in wood pellet production.
Arlington Plastics Machinery (APM), a Chicago-area seller of plastic processing equipment for more than 25 years, has announced it is branching out to sell the Crushmaster line of equipment for the size reduction and processing of biomass.
Crushmaster features a German-engineered line of granulators, shredders and briquetting presses designed for biomass. “There are quite a few similarities between the equipment for plastics and equipment for biomass,” says Alan Clarke, APM’s vice president. “Shredders and granulators are something we sell every day to plastics companies. Now we’re going to take our equipment knowledge and expand to a new customer base.”
APM notes that worldwide, biomass provides more than 10 percent of energy needs and is expected to rise to 30 percent by 2050. Pellets are the most common product on the international biomass market, according to APM. The company also cites the exponential growth in wood pellet production from 2 million tons of wood pellets in 2001 to 4 million tons in 2006, to 9 million in 2008 and 16 million in 2010. Additionally, the company says increasing amounts of wood chips, briquettes and pellets from agricultural residues are used for energy production.
