Oil Tank Corn Dryer

Oil Tank Corn Dryer CROP STORAGE Miscellaneous 13-5-10 Allen Twenhafel, Posey, Ill., used a big 500-gal. crude oil tank to create a wood-powered heat exchanger to dry corn with his Shivvers grain drying system. Twenhafel says he reduced his gas requirements 60% using the wood heater to provide heat to his Shivvers system, which has a capacity of 3,000 bu. per day. He can dry with wood alone at a lower capacity. The big oil tank, which he bought for $50, stands next to his drying bins. Twenhafel cut large square holes in the sides of the tank to let air in and inserted 300 gal. and 500 gal. fuel tanks, converted into large wood burners, into opposite sides of the big tank. He fires the big wood-burners with wood he gets from a local sawmill for $40 a load. The burners exhaust to the outside so no smoke gets into the big oil tank chamber. The fans on the bins draw the heated-up air out of the oil tank chamber and into the bin. One firing of the wood burners lasts up to 4 hrs. They raise the air inside the oil tank to about 100?. Twenhafel is considering adding a third wood-burner to raise temperature inside the tank to 120? so that he can eliminate the need for supplemental gas. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Allen Twenhafel, Posey, Ill. (ph 618 594-4120).

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