Determination on energy efficiency in corn grain drying

The object of research is the technological processes of corn grain drying, energy plants. One of the most problematic areas for agricultural producers is providing energy for technological processes of bringing grain material to the indicators of product sales. And during the war and post-war period in Ukraine, this requires non-standard approaches and ways of implementation. Therefore, for operation in autonomous mode, the technology involves the use of biomass, electricity from solar panels and/or a diesel generator to supply the coolant to the grain drying zone. The availability of biomass is ensured by cleaning grain material after harvesting and crop residues. The study examined the technology of corn grain drying in “Agrotechservice” LLC of the Poltava district of the Poltava region (Ukraine) using the Saphir 2134 modular grain dryer with an improved biomass boiler. The results of studies of the operation of a grain dryer using different types of fuel (gas, diesel fuel, alternative fuel) showed that the energy consumption for reducing humidity by 1 ton-percent was: for gas – 1.5 m3; for diesel fuel – 1.8 l; for biomass – 3.4 kg. The total cost of drying on a Saphir 2134 grain dryer was obtained, which is 0.205 USD, which is 3.7 times less than when using natural gas and 9.2 times less than when using diesel fuel. This is due to the fact that the proposed technology involves the use of an improved biomass boiler and alternative energy sources. This provides the possibility of obtaining average daily savings using a grain dryer of this model with an improved biomass boiler, which will be about 1.1 thousand USD. Compared to similar corn grain drying processes, these studies have shown the economic feasibility of using biomass as an energy material for the production of thermal energy in the corn grain drying process.