Drying Woodchips with Solar Air

Do you have an operating wood chip facility? How are you drying the chips up to now? You know forest biomass must have minimum  moisture and absence of mold to be sold in good conditionsl. A possible solution: solar air collectors.

Take the example of the company Mendler (Germany) dedicated to the production of firewood. They have placed 72 m2 of solar air collectors on the roof. The collector is a black boxes, covered with glass, which air is introduced from the bottom. Solar radiation is capable of heating the air inside the collector to about 40 ° C in the German winter (80 º C in warmer weather) and collected at the top.

Then this hot air is driven by a fan and is channeled to the bottom of the wood chip silos. The perforated floor under the silos allows the hot and dryed air cross through the chips, taking out a significant amount of moisture from the wood. This instalation saves about 45,000 kWh per year; solar free radiation!!

The advantages of solar air collectors for drying wood or other agricultural products are:

- The air is heated by the sun for free, throughout all year.

- The hot air passes directly between the agricultural and forestry products to dry, with high efficiency.

- These systems are very simple to install, very robust and maintenance free (except filters).

- Operate in extreme conditions. They do not affect either the freezing or long periods of unemployment.

I sincerely think the solar air collectors are the most efficient solution for drying agricultural and forestry products. What better than concentrate the sun to dry? Do you know cases? What do you think?

(Post made from Grammer Solar information)

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