- High-quality
- Sustainable & energy-saving
- Safe & reliable
- Customized by the expert in solar wood chip drying
The custom-tailored solution for your wood chip drying project, utilizing a proven system designed for modern heating fuel demands. Ideal drying of wood chips.
The outstanding results of this cost-effective wood chip drying method have been convincing our innovative customers for years. Eligible for funding and ISO-certified!
“With my CONA solar wood chip drying system, I dry around 2,600 lcm annually using 144 m² of solar collectors. This enables me to reliably provide all my customers with top-quality wood chips sourced directly from my own forest.
"Drying wood chips has grown into a major business sector, even surpassing our original sawmill business. We expect this investment to pay off within 5–6 years."
Why dry wood chips and biomass?
By using solar energy to dry wood chips, different renewable energy sources are seamlessly linked together. In our regions, solar energy is predominantly available during the summer, whereas wood chips and biomass are primarily used for heating in the winter.
Storage Stability
Storing wood chips that are too damp leads to several critical issues:
- Mold formation: Poses health hazards and triggers allergies.
- Self-heating: Creates a serious fire hazard.
- Rotting: Leads to a significant loss of both wood substance and energy.
Higher Heating Value
The water contained in damp wood chips must be evaporated during combustion in the boiler. This drastically reduces the remaining heat energy.
However, if wood chips and biomass are dried from 50% down to 20% moisture content, the effective heating value increases by up to 60%.
Better Emission Value
Comparisons of emission values and ash formation clearly show that dry wood chips result in significantly cleaner emissions and leave behind far less ash.
Longer Boiler Lifespan
Excessive moisture in wood chips heavily corrodes boilers, especially during partial load operation. As a result, manufacturers of wood chip heating systems generally void their warranties if the fuel’s moisture content falls outside the official guidelines (such as ÖNORM standards).
Increased Value and Income
Farmers and foresters can significantly boost their income by drying and marketing premium-quality wood chips. A solar wood chip drying system usually pays for itself very quickly.
Furthermore, previously unusable biomass—such as shrubs, hardwoods, branches, needles, leaves, and bark—is transformed into high-quality bioenergy thanks to CONA solar wood chip drying!
Ready to optimize your harvest? If you want to leverage the advantages of this highly effective technology, contact us today and secure your system!
Award-Winning Technology
CONA has already received several notable awards for its innovative developments in the solar energy sector.
Advantages of drying wood chips with solar
Wood Chip Drying Using Solar Air Technology
Key Features of CONA Solar
The Austrian company CONA has integrated 40 years of solar drying experience from Latin America (sawn timber, medicinal herbs, fruits, coffee, corn, beans, etc.) into the development of solar biomass drying. In those regions, drying takes place under highly challenging conditions, as very high humidity is constant and electricity is only intermittently available or non-existent.
- Continuous Innovation: The technology is constantly improved and kept up to date.
- R&D Driven: The latest results from research and development are continuously incorporated into production.
- Proven Track Record: Hundreds of drying systems have already been successfully implemented.
- Custom Solutions: Each system is a drying solution custom-tailored to the individual client.
Highly Effective, Patented, and Certified Solar Air Collector
The use of air collectors offers several advantages, especially for drying processes. Working directly with air as the medium eliminates the need for additional heat exchangers, while completely avoiding issues like freezing, evaporation, or leakage.
CONA has developed its own solar air collector featuring an exceptionally efficient absorber technology, achieving outputs of up to 789.5 W/m²! The already optimized collector heat is transported directly to the wet wood chips through insulated air ducts to prevent any heat loss along the way.
CONA has received multiple awards for its solar air technology and eco-friendly use of materials, and has held the patent for these solar air collectors for several years.
The CONA CCS+ solar air collector has been Solar Keymark tested and certified according to DIN EN ISO 9806 since 2015. This results in excellent funding rates of over 50%!
Questions about the eligibility of our CONA systems?
For detailed information on local funding opportunities for the CONA solar air collector or solar drying system, your local advisor (e.g., your house bank) is your primary point of contact.
Our service for you: We are happy to help! Through our network, we can connect you directly with the responsible funding authorities. Simply contact us – we are here to assist you!
Low Air Volume Requirements
By heating the air within the enclosed duct, the relative humidity drops, significantly increasing its capacity to absorb moisture. Therefore, a much lower volume of air is required for the drying process.
Patented and Certified Technologies
CONA has been granted patents for both its solar air technology and its unique slanted-floor biomass drying system. Thanks to the official certification of the solar air collector, numerous lucrative funding opportunities are available to our customers.
Storing Summer Solar Energy for the Winter
Solar wood chip drying significantly upgrades the material during the summer, ensuring it is available in the winter with a much higher energy content.
Firewood Drying – Drying Log Wood
With a slightly modified setup of our system, firewood can also be dried efficiently. Depending on the sunshine, firewood dries within 2 to 4 weeks, allowing log wood to be processed and sold much faster.
Firewood is significantly upgraded in value during the summer and provides a much higher energy content in winter. High-quality, well-dried log wood is often in short supply on the market; therefore, many families with tiled stoves are willing to pay a premium for properly dried firewood.
Securing and Refining Your Harvest
Farmers and foresters harvest at the optimal time, but the wood is often still damp during chipping. If stored un-dried, the wood chip pile heats up on its own—and valuable energy is lost unused.
However, with the help of solar energy, this energy yield can be perfectly secured. Solar wood chip drying plays the decisive role here.
Clearly Calculated
Solar wood chip drying perfectly combines ecology with economic success. Once invested, the system pays for itself in a very short time—because, as we know, the sun never sends a bill.
The operating costs are also highly convincing: electricity consumption is just 0.01 to 0.03 kWh per kilogram of water extracted. For you, this means that the average electricity costs for drying are under €1 per loose cubic meter (lcm) (approx. 2–4 kWh).
We will gladly assist you in calculating your drying system so you can find the optimal drying capacity for your wood chips.
Floor types
Sloping floor
A special innovation from CONA is the patented slanted floor for solar wood chip drying.
The slanted floor is designed to match the natural angle of repose of the wood chips, which makes handling the material incredibly easy. When loosening the wood chips, the material “merely” needs to be moved from the bottom to the top using a tractor, loader, or similar equipment, and it automatically trickles back down at the correct angle. (See the video below for a demonstration)
Furthermore, the slanted floor consists of special louvred panels (gill panels). These optimize the airflow through the wet wood chips while simultaneously preventing the air holes from clogging.
Thanks to integrated protective rails, the slanted floor can be driven on even with a wood chip pile height of just 0.5 meters, ensuring easy and flexible operation.
Due to the large surface area of the louvred panels, the wood chips are excellently aerated while generating very little backpressure. Consequently, the system is highly energy-efficient, with electricity costs amounting to only about €0.30 to €0.50 per loose cubic meter (lcm) of dried wood chips.
Anyone looking for an ideal, time-saving, and energy-efficient solution to dry wood chips relies on a CONA solar drying system with a slanted floor.
Flat floor
Drive-On Flat Grate for Solar Wood Chip Drying
As an alternative to the slanted floor, CONA now also offers a space-saving, drive-on flat grate for drying. This system is particularly suited for existing buildings with low ceiling heights and limited depth.
Special louvred panels with downward-facing openings ensure that the material does not fall through while allowing air to flow out completely unobstructed. Even the smallest wood chip particles cannot cover or clog the holes.
The generous, full-surface ventilation of the drying system results in very low backpressure. This allows the use of highly energy-efficient fans even at high airflow rates, keeping electricity consumption to an absolute minimum.
Loading and unloading the drying material, such as wood chips or grain, can be managed effortlessly using standard agricultural tractors.
The greatest advantage of the flat floor is its multifunctional application. It can be used to dry hay, round bales, firewood, and of course, grain and wood chips.
For a dedicated wood chip dryer, we still recommend the slanted floor, as the labor savings provided by the incline are simply unbeatable. Due to its sturdier, heavy-duty construction, the flat grate variant is slightly more expensive than the slanted floor.
Weigh the advantages of each variant and decide what matters most to your operations. We are happy to help you find the perfect fit!
Performance
Solar wood chip drying perfectly combines ecology with economic success. Once invested, the system pays for itself in a very short time—because, as we know, the sun never sends a bill.
The operating costs are also highly convincing across the board: electricity consumption is just 0.01 to 0.03 kWh per kilogram of water extracted. For you, this means that the average electricity costs for drying are under €1 per loose cubic meter (lcm) (approx. 2–4 kWh).
We will gladly send you informational material to help you find your optimal drying capacity.
What we can do for you:
- Expert planning of your customized wood chip drying system
- Delivery of all core components
- Manufacturing in Austria
- Ecologically sustainable and innovative technology
- Installation of your solar drying system or training for self-assembly
- Commissioning of the solar wood chip drying system
Previous measurements have produced the following results (examples):
100 m² system:
- Approx. 2,000 loose cubic meters (lcm) of wood chips per season
- From an average of 40%–60% down to 10%–20% moisture content
- Energy gain of 150 to 200 kilowatt-hours per loose cubic meter
- 300,000 to 400,000 kilowatt-hours of annual energy yield
- With an electricity input of only 4,000 to 6,000 kilowatt-hours
400 m² system:
- Approx. 8,000 loose cubic meters (lcm) of wood chips per season
- From an average of 40%–60% down to 10%–20% moisture content
- Energy gain of 150 to 200 kilowatt-hours per loose cubic meter
- 1,200,000 to 1,600,000 kilowatt-hours of annual energy yield
- With an electricity input of only 16,000 to 24,000 kilowatt-hours
Payback period: 5–8 years (depending on subsidies)
References
Once you see a solar wood chip drying system for yourself on-site, you will be thrilled!
Here, we present a selection of our reference projects for solar wood chip drying. We would be happy to send you a more comprehensive list for your area or recommend a specific reference project that closely matches your situation.
Michael Berger (Austria)
- Specifications: 144 m² solar surface area
- Performance/Output: Dries approx. 2,600 lcm (loose cubic meters) of quality wood chips from their own forest per year to ensure a clean supply to all customers.
- Year of construction:
Agrargemeinschaft Natters (Tyrol, Austria)
- Specifications: 219 m² solar surface area
- Performance/Output: 4,500 m³ wood chips per year
- Year of construction: 2018
Steiner Installationen GmbH (Dellach/Carinthia, Austria)
- Specifications: 131 m² solar surface area with 2 sloped floors and 1 flat floor.
- Performance/Output: Drying of around 2,200 m³ of wood chips per year
- Year of construction:
Large enterprise in the Black Forest / Lang Family (Germany)
- Specifications: 284 m² solar surface area with 2 sloped floors and 1 flat floor
- Performance/Output: Dries around 300 lcm (loose cubic meters) of wood chips per batch and approx. 5,500 m³ of wood chips, as well as loose hay (flat floor) per year
- Year of construction:
Heating Plant Grundner / Grundner Family (Edelbach, Austria)
- Specifications: Expansion of the system from 48 m² to 224 m² solar surface area
- Performance/Output: Designed for a drying volume of approx. 5,000 lcm (loose cubic meters) per year
- Year of construction: 2006 to 2018
Josef Manzenreiter (Sawmill operator, Waldburg/Upper Austria)
- Specifications: Expansion of the system from 96 to 348 m² solar surface area
- Performance/Output: Dries around 8,000 m³ of wood chips per year
- Year of construction:
Turin, Italy
- Specifications: 96 m² solar surface area with 2 drying boxes
- Performance/Output: They dry around 2,000 m³ of wood chips
- Year of construction: 2015
Füsslberger Family (Austria)
- Specifications: Expansion of the system from 60 m² to 144 m² solar surface area
- Performance/Output: Dries approx. 3,000 lcm (loose cubic meters)/year
- Year of construction: 2010 to 2014
Joachim Hammerl (Pioneer in Styria, Austria)
- Specifications: 48 m² solar surface area with a sloped floor
- Performance/Output:
- Year of construction:
Company / Large-scale project in Vilsbiburg (84137, Germany)
- Specifications: 140 m² solar surface area – 2 drying chambers
- Performance/Output: Around 2,500 lcm (loose cubic meters) annual volume
- Year of construction:
Operation in Hochburg/Ach (Austria)
- Specifications: 96 m² solar surface area
- Performance/Output: 1,800 lcm (loose cubic meters) annual volume
- Year of construction: 2011
Mr. Georg Miller (Riegsee, Germany)
- Specifications: Expansion of the solar surface area from 48 m² to…
- Performance/Output: Has been drying approx. 800 to 1,000 lcm (loose cubic meters) of wet material annually since 2010.
- Year of construction: from 2010
Preuner – Upper Austria (Frankenburg)
- Specifications: 246 m² solar surface area with a flat floor and a Gold control system
- Performance/Output: 100 m³ per week
- Year of construction: 2023
Zobl – Tyrol (Forchach)
- Specification: 198 m² solar surface area with a sloped floor
- Performance/Output: 4,000 m² of wood chips
- Year of construction: 2021
Frequently asked questions about our solar wood chips drying plants
The duration of the drying process depends on 3 important factors:
dimension of the drying plant and solar collectors
weather and sunny days
water content of wood chips at the beginning
Our experience shows that under good weather conditions during summer time the drying process takes about 1 – 2 weeks and 3 – 6 weeks in spring and autumn.
The solar collector is integrated into the roof. It’s best to place the collectors on the southern side but it can be also placed slightly western. One drying chamber needs to be 5,5 – 6m long and width depends on the needed capacity. A drying chamber that bears a capacity of 60 bulk cubic metres needs a width of 7,5m.
The main part of the needed energy is produced by solar radiation. The ventilators need about 2 – 4 kWh/lcm.
The drying process takes place in 10 – 20 charges per year. So there is a need of a separate storehouse for the dry wood chips.
The wood chips are distributed evenly on the sloping grating and less pressure is built. So it is possible to use very energy saving ventilators. It’s also easier processing the wood chips on the grating.
After planning the drying plant together with our customer the installation can be done in a few days depending on the roof.
It is possible to do a lot of things under your own auspices. The gratings can be installed totally on your own. But installing the collectors should be done under investigation of our employees to guarantee a smooth running of the drying plant.
The sloping gratings can also be used with other sources of energy and in combination with solar energy and another one.