Hamer Pellet Plant-Elkins

We traveled to the Hamer Lumber Companies today to see their wood pellet operations. We were shown the operation by Cabell County native Jim Dearing. Mr. Dearing began by explaining how the Hamer Company got into the wood pellet business. They began because they needed to get rid of a waste product from lumber milling, wood chips and saw dust. After paying nearly $1,000,000,000 to remove a large pile of saw dust they began to explore options to use the wood dust. Their solution was to manufacture wood pellets. That is the basis of our tour today.

Mr. Dearing

Mr. Dearing explaining the history of Hamer
wood pellets in Elkins

Hamer receives trucks of sawdust from saw mills and wood manufactures and creates a wood product they call Hamer's Hot Ones. Those pellets are then sold to retail operations such as your big box home improvement stores and others that sell to owners of wood pellet stoves. The stoves are then used to heat consumer's homes.

Sawdust that has been unloaded and is ready for the drying process.

The oven and tumbler used to remove
moisture from the sawdust so it
can be burned for fuel. Incidentally,
the ovens are fueled by sawdust!

This  machine cuts the hot pellets extruded from the drying process

Bags to be filled with the wood pellets

Pellets being extruded from holes to be cut

Pellets ready for loading onto trucks and
shipping to consumers.

Pellets exiting the cutting process and
ready for packaging