Cimbria has won the order of two big projects for Lantmännen in Sweden consisting of intake, pre-cleaning, drying and storage for new grain terminals. Both plants will have new ECO-Logic continuous flow dryers, which represent the absolute state-of-the-art in terms of current technology.

For customers, gentle and uniform drying with optimum energy consumption are essential, in addition to a high level of automation and remote control, low dust emission and low noise levels. These requirements are augmented by demands for high reliability and availability, as the dryer has to operate without interruption during the harvest and drying season.

Cimbria has won the order of two big projects for Lantmännen in Sweden consisting of intake, pre-cleaning, drying and storage for new grain terminals. Both plants will have new ECO-Logic continuous flow dryers, which represent the absolute state-of-the-art in terms of current technology. In addition to the drying process, both projects are designed for reception and storage of various grains. The first project is in Hargshamn in Uppsala, north of Stockholm. The second project is for installation in Hammenhög, close to Ystad in southern Sweden. In Hammenhög, in particular, the plant will carry out fine cleaning of malt grain outside the harvest season. Mechanical installation commenced at the beginning of February 2019 and is scheduled to be finished at the end of June 2019, with performance tests and training of operational personnel due to be carried out during the 2019 harvest.

The newly developed continuous flow ECO-Logic dryers are equipped with the latest generation of automatic operation control and process control, as this is an essential part of the drying process. In addition, variable heat recovery of dry air and dust extraction are performed in integrated tangentially-acting dust separator Dust Guards.

The two dryers are not heated by fossil fuels such as oil and gas. The first dryer for the Hargshamn project is heated with direct electrical heating, whilst the second dryer for the Hammenhög plant is heated with water from a boiler plant fired with renewable fuel. The electrical heating method, in particular, has many advantages, not least in terms of regulation, whilst at the same time ensuring a good and highly uniform distribution of heat throughout the drying process. These advantages are particularly significant in connection with the size of the facility, which corresponds to a capacity of more than 100 TPH.

The fans for aspiration and recirculation are equipped with frequency converters, so that the power consumption of the large fans is controlled according to exact requirements. The dryer is equipped with automatic control of the recirculation zone, which is controlled in increments depending on the product, as well as the temperature and humidity of the grain and dry air.

Intelligent drying with optimum energy consumption A continuous flow dryer consists in principle of three sections: The heating section, the dryer column and the exhaust section. In the heating section the ambient air is heated and mixed with the recirculated air and is led into the drying column via hot air ducts. In the drying column, the heat of the drying air evaporates the moisture in the grain, while at the exhaust section the drying air is expelled through the exhaust fan and the dust separation devices.

Gentle and uniform drying The main objective in the heating section is to obtain a completely uniform temperature at the dryer column inlet. For the ECO-Logic™ dryer a hot air mixer was designed by utilising Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis and this air mixer ensures a +/- 5Co tolerance of the drying air to guarantee even, accurate and gentle drying of the grain. The discharge device of the dryer column ensures an even discharge of the grain across the entire outlet area of the dryer. The discharge principle is based on Cimbria’s well-known volumetric discharge system, which provides a very accurate indication of capacity, since each discharge has a certain fixed volume. High grain quality is maintained, thus assuring germination ability and grain quality. The ECO-Logic™ has been designed to redirect the hottest grain so that it changes place with the colder and wetter grain at the colder part of the dryer in order to ensure even drying of the grain.

Energy-efficient Solution A prerequisite for achieving high dryer efficiency is to ensure that the exhaust air humidity level is as high as possible and the volume flow of the exhaust air is as low as possible. With the very even temperature distribution and accurate control of the dryer, the drying temperature can be increased and kept at a high level without damaging the grain, thus ensuring high humidity in the exhaust air and hence high efficiency. To reduce the volume flow of exhaust air and to utilise the fact that the exhaust air at the lowest drying sections is not fully saturated and is relatively warm, the number of recirculation sections has been optimised and is controlled by a sliding valve. In general, the new dryer is approximately 20 % more efficient than a traditional dryer such as the A-dryer and 10 % more efficient than a dryer like the ECO-Master.

Low dust and noise The ECO-Logic™ is provided with fans of the centrifugal fan type with limited noise emission. For control of dust emission, a dust guard is designed to capture the dust particles, thus ensuring that the ECO-Logic™ dryer complies with environmental regulations.

Cimbria was established in 1947 and is today an international organisation with 900 employees in 30 companies throughout the world. Since 2016, Cimbria has been a part of the AGCO corporation. Cimbria offers storage, equipment and processing plants for the grain and seed industry and transport and conveying equipment for bulk handling.