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Wood pellets are made either from the by-products of other wood manufacturing processes or from whole round wood. The wood is dried, pulverized, and then forced under high pressure through the holes in a die, much like spaghetti is made. Wood pellets can be made from either hardwood or softwood; premium or super premium pellets are very dry and have very little ash content. Softwood pellets often contain more heat per pound than hardwood pellets because of the resin in the wood. Burning wood pellets does not create chimney deposits as burning cordwood can; in fact, there is no smoke visible from the chimney when wood pellets are burning.
Wood pellets for bulk delivery are stored in large silos where delivery trucks load them for distribution to homes and businesses.
Wood pellets are taken from silos and delivered to home storage units which can be bins or silos indoors or outdoors. These storage units can be of varying sizes, so that many residences can require only a couple of deliveries a year. A home that burns 1,000 gallons of #2 heating oil would burn approximately 7.5 tons of premium wood pellets. 4 tons of wood pellets can be stored in a 6' cube in the basement. Wood pellets must be kept dry so the storage containers are airtight.
Wood pellets are delivered automatically by auger or by vacuum system from the pellet storage bin to the burner on the boiler. The feed mechanism is controlled by the burner; as it needs wood pellets it turns the auger or vacuum system on; when the system's storage tank is full, it ceases filling.
A wood pellet fired boiler works just as any other boiler does providing hot water to your baseboard radiation, radiators or radiant floor heating system and providing domestic hot water for your kitchen and bathrooms. 
Unlike oil boilers, wood pellet-fired boilers do require ash removal. The economical MESys systems require manual ash removal every three or four weeks during heating season using wood pellets commonly available in the Northeast. The more feature-rich AutoPellet systems, which are fitted with deashing equipment, require only occasional dumping of the ashes from the automatic ash collection system. The ash bin is light, and the ash is actually good for your garden or lawn, so disposal is a simple matter.
The pellet-fired boiler systems distributed by Maine Energy Systems LLC do all this work while burning a carbon neutral fuel raised, milled, and distributed in the Northeast.
