BRANDON – Natural air convection in a granary can cool, dry and ventilate grain without fans, heat or manpower requirements. It’s as if the system runs itself.
GrainAirTubes, manufactured in Saskatoon, are intended to produce good aeration within a bin without depending on fans or energy. A producer can aerate bins in fields or in yards that don’t have power.
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“If you want to aerate all the bins on your farm at the same time, you can do that,” said inventor Gary Schreiner.
He said many farms have only enough power to run three or four fans at a time, forcing producers to endure a juggling act of fans and bins at a time when they should be focusing on harvest.
However, eliminating a dependency on electricity allows producers to simultaneously aerate all the bins in the main yard and others scattered in their fields.
“And you don’t have to wait for just the right weather,” Schreiner said.
“On our farm, in a wet fall, we used to run the aeration fans for two weeks and we wouldn’t even lose one percent moisture. In the same size bin with the tube, we drop 1.5 percent moisture in 40 days without a fan or any kind of energy consumption.
“For temperature, the first week of December the bins with tubes are -12 C at the centre of the grain. The bins without the pipes are 24 C. So something good is happening in there.”
Schreiner said he was inspired by the old practice of installing vertical cedar posts in grain piles that would wick heat and moisture to the top of the pile, where it vented to the atmosphere.
“We all know that heat rises,” he said.
“Well, one day it just clicked for me. I thought, ‘why don’t I put some kind of perforated pipe up the centre of a bin just to see what happens?’ So I put in a vertical pipe and the heat and moisture just came pouring out the top. That was three years ago. Now we manufacture them for other farmers. We no longer use fans on any bins on our farm.”
Schreiner said the process relies on natural movement of air, which means there’s no need to force air with a fan or add heat for drying.
He said the same natural convection process occurs in all grain bins, regardless of size or type of grain.
“Grain warms up when you bin it. It releases heat and it sweats. So you get a natural convection current of cold air coming down the steel sides of the bin.
“The cold air is heavier, so it settles on the bottom of the bin. The warmer air at the centre of the bin is pushed up. That’s the direction it wants to go anyway. And as it rises, it carries moisture with it.
“So if you install a perforated vertical pipe up the centre, the heat and moisture have an easy path to follow straight up to the top. The warm air naturally follows the path of least resistance. The pipe just helps it along.”
Schreiner said the perforations allow warm air surrounding the pipe to enter from the sides. The cone disperses heavy grain to the outside so the centre can breathe better.
Extremely cold winter temperatures within the centre of the bin eliminate hot spots and reduce the number of rusty grain beetles. It also eliminates the need to turn the grain.
GrainAirTubes can be used in hopper and flat bottom bins, Quonsets or grain rings. Prices range from $444 for a 12-foot-high bin to $908 for a 32-foot-high bin.
For more information, contact Schreiner at 306-291-9960 or visit www.powerlessaeration.ca.
