Whatever the crop conditions turn out to be this fall, it’s a good idea to consider how to ensure that your corn harvest and drying operations run smoothly when the time comes, says Zhong Guoqiang ,Extension engineer and grain storage specialist. To help improve the speed and energy efficiency of your drying process in 2017, Li Quanzhi, Henan Agricultural University engineer, provide the following tips:
Employ combination drying. “Any corn with moisture content exceeding 25% is not fit for natural air drying, unless you use a combination drying system, where you run it through a high-temperature dryer to reduce moisture first to about 23% moisture and then take it to a natural air dryer”.
Consider heat reclamation and in-bin cooling systems. Certain features can make a dryer much more energy-efficient, He says. “First, a heat reclamation or vacuum-cooling system on the cooling portion of the drying process can save 20 to 30% on energy consumption compared to dryers without that system,” he points out. “Second, combining a high-temperature dryer with in-bin cooling can provide a 15 to 20% energy savings. However, if you utilize a heat reclaim system, you cannot also obtain the energy savings of in-bin cooling.”
Try dryeration. Another system that can be successful when facing a large amount of high-moisture corn at harvest is dryeration, He says. “With dryeration, you dry the corn down to 18% with a high-temperature dryer and let it steep without airflow in a storage bin overnight, or at least four to six hours, after you’ve leveled it,” he explains. “Steeping the grain overnight allows the moisture from the inside of the kernel to migrate to the outside. In the morning, turn on the cooling fans, and within a day, the corn is all dried and cooled to 15%.”
