Product cooler TKBD silo system
Product cooler / preheater for pourable and free-flowing products.
The specially developed and patented process for pourable and free-flowing products uses the energy-efficient air-product counterflow method.
This air-product counterflow process can be used for cooling, ventilation or heating.
The tried and tested process principle used here with overlapping aeration openings ensures that the products are discharged almost in parallel. The lowest products with the longest dwell time are discharged.
The energy exchange in the counterflow principle air - product takes place mainly in the lowest product layer.
1. Advantages of the TKBD product cooler / preheater
- Energy-efficient counterflow principle air - product
- significantly reduced use of cooling or hot air
- significantly reduced electricity consumption
- Low energy requirement for heating or cooling capacity
- Low dedusting effort
- Low space requirement
- Flexible construction height with integrated storage of the product
- Can also be used as a storage silo (due to parallel bagging, old product is always discharged first)
- Modular, expandable system
- Performance increase for existing drying or pressing systems
1.1 Advantages when cooling with a blower or cooling unit
- When used on existing drying systems, this increases the dryer performance, as products with higher moisture are discharged hot from the dryer (e.g. corn up to 17.5% moisture)
- Reduction of the energy requirement of the dryer.
- External cooling increases the dryer capacity by approx. 15 - 30%
- Moisture fluctuations in the product are reduced.
- Improvement of quality characteristics
- Moisture reduction of the products through the use of ambient air can achieve moisture removal of up to 4%.
- Higher moisture removal is achieved when using cooling units.
- Shelf life of the cooled product increases.
- continuous operation
- can be used to cool products from pellet presses
- Reduction of the energy consumption of cooling devices ( 1/3 )
1.2 advantages when heating or heating by means of a fan or heating unit
- Moisture removal up to 4% and more depending on application.
- Moisture fluctuations in the product are reduced.
- Low oil consumption due to air - product counterflow principle.
- Quality characteristics are improved.
- The shelf life increases.
- Press yields are increased by introducing heated products (e.g. heating rapeseed increases its oil yield)
2. Structure and function of the cooler
The "floor" of the cooler consists of a comprehensive, multiple special ventilation system with controlled discharge.
This system is variable depending on customer application and product.
The roof-shaped design prevents the products from flowing freely. The cooler can be filled and emptied continuously, fully automatically or in a set / circulation.
The standard cooler dimensions can be customized according to the number of superstructures and pre-storage up to a height of 18 meters.
2.1 Cooler products and application examples of the cooler
Typical cooler products are
- Grain
- Rice
- Corn (hot from the dryer)
- Pellet
- Rapeseed
- Granules
- Sunflowers
- and other free-flowing, pourable products
Function as a continuous dryer
The silo is constantly filled with product. The product is dried and continuously discharged using hot air. Parallel bagging and the counterflow process (air from below, grain from above) also play a major role here.
Function as batch and / or batch circulation dryer-cooler
The product is filled in batches and then cooled or dried in a batch circulation or continuous process.
Function for product heating in counter-current continuous flow process
Depending on requirements, warm or hot air is passed through the product using the counterflow principle. This heats the product to the desired temperature.
Application example 1 - Grain harvest: Freshly harvested grain (from the field approx. 30°) is fed into the cooler. The product can now be cooled in a batch, continuous or circulation mode, whereby a reduction in moisture and product temperature is achieved.
Application example 2 - continuous cooling / tempering of maize: Hot product from the dryer is filled in, whereby the cooler should be sized to approximately five times the hourly capacity. By introducing fresh air using a fan, the product can be cooled to the desired temperature and then continuously emptied.
Application example 3 - Cooling pellets: downstream of pellet presses.
Application example 4 - Heating products that are to undergo further processing, e.g. for oil extraction, to increase output and yield.
Application example - if rapeseed is heated to the desired temperature before the press, the yield of rapeseed oil is increased by approx. 1 - 2 %.
2.2 Application methods
- Continuous flow dryer / continuous flow cooler
- Circulation dryer / circulation cooler
- Pack dryer / pack cooler
Throughput capacity
The hourly output of the 3 meter x 3 meter version is up to 15 tons per hour.
The capacity of this specially developed process depends on the product, content, retention time and flow rate and the available input medium air.
The size of the system can be freely selected.