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Wood pellets are a popular renewable biofuel used for home heating, commercial boilers, and utility-scale power plants. Pellets are typically made from compacted sawdust and fine fibrous wood particles generated by sawmills and wood processors. Increasingly, woodlot owners and land managers with treed property are using portable wood pellet mills to manufacture pellets on-site from their own trees and logging residues.
Because wood pellets are extremely dense and usually have a moisture content below 10%, they burn hotter and more efficiently than most cordwood, releasing more usable heat per pound. For landowners, that raises a practical question: how many bags of wood pellets are in a tree?
Almost every part of a leafless tree can be used to manufacture pellets – stem, branches, and tops – even the root, although for our purposes we ignore the root mass. Instead, our wood pellet estimator uses the “dirt-free” portion of the tree above ground to estimate how many 40-pound bags of pellets can be harvested. The felled tree and its branches are cut into manageable sections that can be chipped and fed into the pellet mill. Larger sections are split like firewood to fit the pellet-mill feeder. The calculator assumes typical branching proportionate to the tree’s height and trunk diameter and expresses the result in pounds of pellet product and 40-lb bags.
Use the wood pellet estimator below to quickly calculate how many 40 lb bags of pellets you can harvest from a single tree in your woodlot.
Use this wood pellet estimator together with our other free tools to plan your forest, woodlot, or homestead fuel supply.
Every tree planted is a metric waiting to be measured. Use our tree calculators to estimate spacing, timber value, carbon stored, and more.
Together these tools help you understand how much wood, heat, and carbon storage a single tree or full plantation can provide.
Pellets are categorized by the materials used to make them, color, size, and moisture content. Many pellet suppliers price product according to grade, with tighter specifications commanding higher prices.
Premium wood pellets are almost always made from clean sawdust produced in large quantities at lumber mills. Before pellet manufacturing, mountain-sized piles of sawdust were stockpiled around the mill, and a portion hauled away and dumped at great expense. Turning that sawdust into fuel pellets creates a valuable product from what was once a disposal problem.
Premium pellets have low ash content (typically 1% or less by industry standards), low moisture content (10% or less), and good structural integrity with very few fines. Fines are the fine dust particles that shed from a pellet during handling. Low fines mean cleaner hoppers, fewer auger issues, and more consistent combustion.
Utility wood pellets sit at the other end of the spectrum. They often have lower structural integrity, break more easily, and generate far more fines that can accumulate around the appliance. Utility-grade pellets may also use mixed feedstocks including bark and other contaminants, which raises ash content and can be hard on stoves and boilers. Standard pellets fall between premium and utility grades, balancing cost and performance.
Note: Premium wood pellets can deliver significantly more usable heat than an equivalent weight of traditional firewood. Hardwood pellets have a higher heat rating (BTU chart) than many softwood pellets because they are comprised of dense, compressed wood fiber with roughly half the moisture content of seasoned firewood. Firewood on average has 20% moisture content – the higher the moisture content, the more the fire hisses and wastes energy driving off water instead of delivering heat.
Many barbeque enthusiasts are trading in their gas grills for charcoal and pellet grills. This trend has become so popular that grill manufacturers now offer dedicated pellet grills. The driving force has been the introduction of flavored wood pellets, which provide a distinctive outdoor flavor to vegetables and meat.
Apple, hickory, alder, cherry, maple, mesquite, oak, and pecan are just a few of the flavored wood pellets available. Mixing flavors lets backyard chefs customize smoke profiles for everything from brisket and ribs to pizza and grilled vegetables.
A tree plantation or managed woodlot provides an ideal environment for sustainable wood pellet production. Annual branch pruning provides feedstock for the wood pellet mill; second thinnings in subsequent years provide even more. At harvest, sawlogs can be squared for lumber, and the side slabs used for pelleting. The tops and non-sawlog portions of each tree can be chipped as well.
Using our wood pellet estimator and tools like the firewood calculator or tree carbon calculator, you can estimate how many 40-lb bags of pellets, cords of wood, or tons of CO2 storage each tree or stand can provide.
Wood pellets are typically made by compressing sawdust, wood chips, or other wood waste into small cylindrical pellets that can be used as fuel for heating or cooking. The process usually includes four stages: grinding, drying, pelletizing, and cooling/packaging.
Commercial wood pellet production typically involves large-scale equipment, such as hammer mills, dryers, pellet mills, coolers, and packaging machines. These machines can be expensive and require space, power, and material-handling infrastructure.
There are also smaller-scale wood pellet production systems designed for home or micro-business use. These backyard systems typically include a grinder or hammer mill, a dryer, and a compact pellet mill that can be operated by one person. Costs vary widely depending on size and complexity of the equipment, but they are generally more affordable than full industrial lines, which can easily exceed $50,000 or more.
While wood pellets are often more expensive per ton than raw firewood or some other fuels, they are usually more efficient and produce less pollution and waste, making them a popular choice for environmentally conscious consumers.
A morning wander through your back-forty woodlot with the wood pellet estimator open on your phone, calculating the number of 40-pound bags of pellets each tree could yield, is often all it takes to seriously consider investing in a portable home pellet mill.
The grinder or hammer mill is used to reduce wood chips, sawdust, or other wood waste into small particles or powders that can be fed into the pellet mill. The grinder can be powered by electricity or a combustion engine and can handle different types of wood waste, including pruning residues and offcuts.
The dryer is used to reduce the moisture content of the wood particles, which is critical for producing dense, crack-free pellets. The dryer may be a simple airflow dryer or a more complex rotary drum dryer and can be powered by electricity, biomass, or other fuels.
The portable home pellet mill compresses the dried wood particles into small cylindrical pellets that can be bagged and stored. Inside, a die and rollers apply pressure and heat to the wood particles, forcing them through holes in the die. Natural lignin in the wood acts as a binder, holding the pellet together as it cools. Portable mills can be powered by electricity, PTO, or a small engine and can be configured for different pellet diameters and output rates.
To make your own wood pellets, you’ll generally follow these steps:
Yes. Dense hardwoods generally produce more pounds of pellets per cubic foot than light softwoods, but softwoods can have higher BTU per pound because of resin content. The wood pellet estimator uses average density and branching assumptions; actual yield will vary by species, taper, and how much of the crown you chip.
You can use branches and tops as long as they’re clean and chipped to an appropriate size. Our estimator assumes typical branching above the merchantable stem to give a realistic number of 40 lb bags of pellets per tree. Avoid dirt, rocks, and excessive bark, which can increase ash and wear out your mill.
The calculator is designed as a planning tool, not a lab-grade measurement. It uses trunk diameter, assumed tree height, and a typical branching ratio to estimate total usable wood volume, then converts that volume to pounds of pellets and 40 lb bags. For investment decisions or commercial projects, combine it with a full woodlot estimate and local mill data.
Pellets are drier, denser, and more uniform than cordwood. In a modern pellet stove or boiler, they typically deliver higher overall efficiency, easier thermostat control, and lower emissions than an open fireplace or older wood stove burning cordwood. Our firewood calculator and BTU chart can help you compare outputs.
Most pellet mills perform best when feedstock is in the 8–12% moisture range. Too wet and pellets crumble or crack; too dry and they may not bind properly. That’s why the drying stage is essential before running material through your home or commercial pellet mill.
In many areas you can sell bagged or bulk pellets from your property, but you’ll need to comply with local regulations, labeling laws, and any safety or quality standards that apply. Whether you sell them or burn them yourself, the wood pellet estimator helps you understand the potential value stored in each tree on your land.
Partner with us in a land management project to repurpose agricultural lands into appreciating tree assets. We have partnered with growingtogive.org , a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, to create tree-planting partnerships with land donors.
We have partnered with growingtogive.org , a Washington State nonprofit, to create a land and tree partnership program that repurposes agricultural land into appreciating tree assets.
The program utilizes privately owned land to plant trees that benefit both the landowner and the environment.
If you have 100 acres or more of flat, fallow farmland and would like to plant trees, we would like to talk to you. There are no costs to enter the program. You own the land; you own the trees we plant for free, and there are no restrictions—you can sell or transfer the land with the trees at any time.
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