One of the disadvantages on heating with wood pellets has been that unlike firewood, home owners couldn't just go out and make their pellets.
This is all changing now that home owners and small businesses are making pellets with small scale pellet mills.
Pellets are made using heat and pressure that requires some fairly advanced machinery.
The raw material used is sawdust or wood that has been finely ground and most people don't have access to this type of machinery.
Because of this pellets are mostly made in large industrial mills.
In recent years pellet mill manufacturers have developed technology that allows them to make small scale pellet mills.
Some small low production models are priced low enough that many home owners can afford to buy and use them for making pellets for their own use.
Mid range and larger production mills can be ideal for commercial use by small businesses.
These can work well for small wood manufacturing facilities to turn their wood waste material into a product they can sell and make a profit from.
Or anyone who has access to raw wood and other forms of biomass.
As people are looking to get away from fossil fuels and replace them with green renewable forms of energy wood pellets are starting to get more attention as an alternative form of heat.
With that wood pellet demand will likely continue to increase.
Although seasonal, wood pellets can be a steady source of long term income since it's a consumable product that people buy year after year.
Even in a slow economy people still want to stay warm so when demand for other forest products come and go pellets like firewood tend to be a more stable market.