In combination with solar wood chip drying, solar grain drying provides a highly efficient utilization of solar energy and drying capacity.
This method of drying is very similar to wood chip drying and operates using the exact same ventilation system.
A customized retaining wall with 2 slide outlets is manufactured to match the size of the finished drying box. This wall can be set up with very little effort during the grain harvesting season and is just as easy to dismantle afterwards. This allows you to set up the grain drying system precisely when it is needed, store it away once completed, and utilize the infrastructure to dry wood chips for the remainder of the year.
Due to the full-surface ventilation of the grain, very little backpressure builds up, allowing the use of highly efficient fans with remarkably low power consumption. This makes the entire drying process very cost-effective.
A drying box that typically holds 100 m³ of wood chips can be filled with and dry between 40 and 50 tons of grain. Depending on the initial moisture content and sunshine, the grain remains in the drying box for 2 to 8 days.
The solar capacity should be sized slightly more generously than for a standard, pure biomass drying system, as grain drying requires higher performance within a shorter window of time.
The easy use with the filling of the drying and emptying the drying chamber is important to us.
This works very well with quite normal punch snails. These often already exist and must not be specially purchased.
By the conformist angle of the solar grain drying the grain trickles by itself by the slip case. Only few shovels stop in the corners, this can be done with little expenditure. This expenditure can be compared with unloading the rest of a tipper.
References
Solar drying of biomass and grain in Wolfsegg
Family Mittermayr has 120 m² solar area of solar air collectors. By this size he can dry approx. 2200 m³ biomass and 40 tonnes of grain per year.
In July he had his grain only very briefly in the drying box, because it had dried by the nice weather very quickly. He could pour therefore very soon again and dry biomass.
They are very glad that they have the drying of their grain now in own hands.
