SBIR-STTR Award

Artificial drying of grains using heated air is accepted as the normal and essential practice for corn, rice and many other grains worldwide, preventing product loss from spoilage and other biochemical processes which affect quality during long-term storage.Current techniques used to remove moisture adversely affect grain quality, add unnecessary cost to the grain, and are inefficient in energy usage.The primary goal is to achieve vast improvements in the energy efficiency of grain drying while maintaining superior grain quality. Grain dries at a falling rate, as opposed to a constant rate. A necessary element of the successful design will be to maximize the amount of drying accomplished on the steeper portion of the falling-rate drying curve.Accurate prediction of internal moisture gradient profiles is fundamental to the proper design of dryers that utilize steeper rate curve processes. Conducting the basic research necessary to develop an adequate expression for the drying rate that applies to the specific range of conditions encountered during coupled drying, tempering, and cooling subsystems as is anticipated in the final design is essential to project success. Computer simulations will be used to rapidly compare alternative designs.

Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research:
:Successful design and commercialization of a drying system that leap-frogs the technology and performance of current state-of-the art commercial dryers is anticipated.This improved drying system will provide a very high grain quality, will substantially improve the energy efficiency, and will provide exacting moisture control of the grain in a commercially viable package while exhibiting a very competitive drying capacity per initial equipment cost ratio.Widespread adoption will substantially reduce the emissions of CO2 greenhouse gas as it saves the U.S. grain industry millions of dollars annually. This technology may be exported to all world grain producing countries