The Characteristic Analysis of Multifunctional Grain Storage System with Low Temperature Drying, Refrigeration and Humidification

Abstract

Drying is the main energy consumption in the grain industry. At present, most grain drying are using machines or drying towers, but its heat loss and energy consumption is large. Some of dryers use coal as heat source and cause serious environmental pollution. In addition, the long-term storage of grain is prone to mildew and insect pests. At the same time, long-term storage of grain will lead to low water content of grain and affect the processing quality of grain. Therefore, it’s significant to realize the high-quality-low-energy consumption drying and long-term safe storage of grain to ensure the quality of exported grain. A multifunctional grain storage system with low temperature drying, refrigeration, and humidification was proposed. The equipment was developed according to the system. It had three functions such as low temperature drying mode, low temperature storage mode, and humidification mode. The equipment can realize “one-stop” grain storage and automatic control of the whole process of grain storage. The experimental results showed the air parameters of unit outlet met the design requirements in the three working modes. The average drying rates of corn and radish were about 1.1%/h and 2.9%/h, respectively. In addition, the unit can save about 19.4% of energy compared with the dryer, and 51.7% of energy compared with the condensing and dehumidifying dryer through the energy consumption analysis of the system. The driving energy of this equipment was electric, so it was eco- friendly and easy to realize the intelligent construction of granary, coming with a prospect of broad application.

Keywords

• grain
• low temperature drying
• low temperature storage
• humidification
• liquid dehumidification