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BetterFarmingON
Better Farming
December 2016
RISING
ELECTRICAL
COSTS
commercial elevators. The “dryera-
tion” process developed at Purdue
University was among the first to be
field tested in Ontario.
Hot dried corn was removed from
the dryer when the moisture content
(mc) measured between 16 and 18
per cent. Then the corn filled one of
three tempering bins, usually con-
crete silos. The grain sat for about
eight hours before a relatively large
fan output of 0.5 cubic feet per
minute (cfm) per bushel was blown
up through the corn to remove the
two-to-three points of moisture and
cool the grain. That corn then had to
be moved to another dry bin so the
tempering bin could be reused.
Dryeration provided a high-quality
output but required careful monitor-
ing and an additional handling of the
corn at a very busy period. New
continuous flow dryers with a
tempering section between the drying
and cooling sections basically took
over.
As fuel costs continued to rise, the
concept of reclaiming the heat from
the cooling section became popular
and was very effective. However, the
red dog released from the dry corn
could be passed directly into the
drying section through the burner.
This fire hazard had to be eliminated
by providing a settling chamber for
the red dog. The collected red dog
could be taken to the field in a
manure spreader, which eliminated
the product from the drying area.
The next major progression was
the introduction of screen-less dryers.
They solved two major issues. Previ-
ously, corn over-dried when it flowed
along the hot inside dryer screens.
This process resulted in broken
kernels and excessive unsaleable fines.
Screen-less dryers solved these
problems.
These screen-less dryers operated
on a batch drop system. The airflow
was stopped temporarily, and the red
dog could be collected and diverted
to a special bin for disposal.
Handling changes
It was often very difficult to convince
a person who was planning to build a
first drying system to (a) move the
system away from the old livestock
buildings on the site and (b) make
provisions for the eventual inclusion
of a leg elevator.
I still recommend both. Virtually
every drying setup now has a large
dump pit and at least one high-capac-
ity leg elevator.
High-rate grain-handling capabili-
ty is an absolute must to eliminate the
pesky elevator lineups that plagued so
many of us in days gone by!
In addition, that high-capacity leg
elevator can also greatly reduce
load-out times for the grain trains
moving dry product outbound.
One final thought
Would you have ever visualized a
200-hp motor on a leg elevator? They
do exist and not just on the high-ca-
pacity elevators used to load and
unload ships!
BF
New large-diameter (high-
capacity) grain bins require four
20-hp fans just for aeration to
maintain the desired grain
temperature.