Design parameters of low temperature shelled-corn drying in the Central Black Sea Region of Turkey

Corn drying is an energy-intensive process. Thus, the management of energy use is critical for economical corn drying. The Central Black Sea Region covering Amasya, Çorum, Ordu, Samsun and Tokat provinces has climatic and agronomic conditions suitable for corn production. However, the drying of newly harvested wet corn stays as a major problem for farmers since it is traditionally dried by spreading it on the ground in open atmosphere. Low temperature drying was selected in this computational study to dry corn safely. Fan power, heating power, total electric energy need of fan and total heating energy needed and to dry 1 ton corn from 25% (wb) initial moisture content to 13% (wb) final moisture content were estimated in September, October and November for each province. The airflow requirements (i.e., 159.1 m³·ton^-1·h^-1 for Amasya) and overall electric energy needs of selected fans (i.e., 27245 kJ·ton^-1 for Amasya) in September are more than in November (68.3 m³·ton^-1·h ^-1 and 10221 kJ·ton^-1, respectively) because of quick deterioration of wet corn associated with high air temperatures in September. On the other hand, heating power requirements showed a mixed trend while the total heating energy needs consistently increased for all provinces when the drying operation was moved from September to November. In conclusion, the estimated total heating need increased while the estimated total electric energy need of fan decreased since the heating process increased the adiabatic drying potential of air, which in turn reduced the amount of air volume having to be flown through corn in the drying bin.