Cost per tonne, margin, break-even and investment payback for wood, alfalfa, feed or biomass.
Adjust the parameters and click “Calculate”. The basic result is free; with a free account you see the full one and your Meelko line.
Before buying the first machine it pays to know what a tonne of pellets costs to make and what margin it leaves. This calculator takes your target production, selling price, raw material, energy, labor and investment, and returns the monthly result, the break-even and how many months the investment takes to pay back.
The mass balance starts from the moisture of the raw material: a tonne of dry pellets (10% moisture) needs more than a tonne of wet material, and if it comes in above 15% it must be dried, with its heat cost. Typical power consumption goes from 35-50 kWh per tonne for feed to 80-100 for wood. Fixed costs (operators, maintenance, rent) are spread over the month's tonnes: that is why scale and running hours matter so much.
With a free account you see which Meelko pellet mill, hammer mill, dryer and conveyor cover your capacity, with list prices, and you request a quote with stock in Miami and shipping to your country.
It depends on the market: wood pellets for heating work on thin margins and volume; feed or alfalfa pellets for export leave more per tonne. The calculator shows the margin with your prices and how much it changes if price or raw material move 10%.
Because above 15% moisture the line needs a dryer, and because more raw material must be processed per tonne of pellets, so the mill and conveying grow.
The automatic investment adds the list prices of the recommended Meelko equipment plus 15% for peripherals (hoppers, panels, assembly). Freight, civil works and working capital are added in the quote.