Grain drying season is thirsty work

With the short but intensive grain drying seasononly lasting from August to October, it is essential that agricultural merchants workingwithin the field have 100 per cent faith in the reliability of their energy sources.

Unfortunately for one of the largest agricultural merchants in the County Carlow area of Ireland, worries about rising costs, decreases in production efficiencies and rising emissions meant it fell short of such top marks.

That’s when the company decided to switch from using diesel oil to LPG to fuel its grain drying operations, which make up a significant part of its business.

It’s not just a reliable source of energy that is a must in the grain drying process; the equipment must also be dependable to avoid downtime, backlogs and those dreaded financial losses.

The LPG supplier proposed the replacement of the existing two-stage oil burner with a fully modulating Weishaupt WM G20LPG burner, allowing for more precise temperature control, increased efficiency and reduced energy consumption.

Sizing and location of the tanks were also critical. The solution - which was completed within budget and ontime - was to install three four tonne LPG tanks which gave on-site storage of around 25,000 litres.

A spokesman for the company said : ‘Everything worked well during the critical grain drying season once we had moved over to LPG and I was impressed with its cleanliness, efficiency and responsiveness. I was also very pleased with the cost savings that resulted when we converted!’