Inaudible noise enables energy-efficient chip drying
Infrasound makes wood chips and grain vibrate, which speeds up the drying process and makes for more energy-efficient chip drying.
A full-scale combination dryer for wood chips and grain at farm level has been built at Öhns farm outside Valbo, with which the synergies between further processing of both agricultural and forestry products are studied. These dual-use applications make it easier to recoup the investment – something that is crucial for an advanced dryer. During the intensive harvest period, the dryer can handle about 30 tonnes of grain per day. During other parts of the year, the dryer can be used to dry wood chips from logging residues such as branches and tops (grot) to increase the energy value of the chips.
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That’s a remarkable amount of work hours for a single machine, the Norcar 600 owned by Erkki Rinne is taken well care of, it even has the original Diesel engine.
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Kieran Anders is a forestry contractor working in the lake district. His work involves hand cutting and extracting timber using a skidder and tractor-trailer forwarder.
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It is not possible to eliminate chain shot, but there are simple steps that can be taken to reduce the risk.
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Arwel takes great pride in the fact that the mill has no waste whatsoever, “the peelings are used for children’s playgrounds, gardens and for farm animals in barns in the winter and the sawdust has multiple uses in gardens and farms as well.
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Timber hauliers need to encourage young blood in, and also look after the hauliers we have, we need make the sector a safe and positive place to work.
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In recent months, microchips have been successfully dried and further tests are planned for next year. For wood chips, moist residue can be dried down to ten percent moisture content, which opens up for other future applications.
The dryer has been developed as a combination dryer and, in addition to wood chips and grain, can also handle other agricultural crops and residues from the food industry.
The infrasound that changes everything
Using sounds that cannot be heard to solve complex industrial problems may sound strange. But the company Infrasonik has for many years worked with innovation linked to high-intensity infrasound to streamline technical processes. Previous applications include precision cooling of sheet metal in steel mills. In addition, grain drying has been successful. The Dryer#2 project demonstrated a new generation of drying technology that uses infrasound as a catalyst to increase drying efficiency while significantly reducing energy demand.
Unlike traditional systems, high drying performance is achieved even at low temperatures. The infrasound fluidizes the material bed, which can be compared to the bed bubbling and the turbulence increasing, which provides better heat and mass transfer. The result is faster and more even drying and up to 40 percent lower energy consumption compared to conventional dryers.
The pulsator that generates the infrasound is the heart of the technology and enables the reduced energy requirement during drying. The drying module also enables the use of a heat pump as a heat source, which in combination with farm-produced solar electricity further improves energy efficiency. This gives the farmer an opportunity to use self-produced electricity when demand on the electricity market is low, and at the same time further process local biomass in the form of logging residue.
A changed industrial landscape is changing the customer image
The industrial landscape is changing and many people are looking at forest biomass as an enabler for their climate transition. The traditional buyers of biofuel – the district heating sector – face competition and are perhaps no longer the players with the greatest willingness to pay for a premium fuel such as dried wood chips. Instead, demand is growing in new segments: syngas generation (a gas used for a chemical synthesis and consisting mostly of a mixture of the gases carbon monoxide and hydrogen), biochar systems, micro combined heat and
power and other industries that need low moisture content for stable operation.
This means that the business for the farmer can change where niche customers with a higher willingness to pay can become more interesting.
The search for the right application continues
Within the project, we are exploring the business ecosystem to find the right application where the small-scale agricultural dryer’s capacity meets a customer who values the premium processed material highly. The goal is a model where the farmer both strengthens his profitability and contributes to the climate transition by refining unused biomass with the help of an energy-efficient, completely fossil-free wood chip dryer.
Do you have thoughts about the project and applications for the technology? Do not hesitate to contact Anders Eriksson, researcher at the Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, or Winston Olsson, project manager at Infrasonik.
Infrasonic, RISE, KR-teknik and Skogforsk are collaborating within the project InfraDryer#3 on energy-efficient chip drying. The project is funded by the EU via the Swedish Board of Agriculture within the framework of an EIP Agri project.
Source Skogsforsk
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