Exhaust Air Heat Recovery System Evaluation for Multiple Make Flue- Cured Tobacco Bulk Barns

Transcription

1 Exhaust Air Heat Recovery System Evaluation for Multiple Make Flue- Cured Tobacco Bulk Barns We Bring Engineering to Life Justin Macialek Grant Ellington 48 th Tobacco Workers Conference January 17, 2018 Biological and Agricultural Engineering

2 Topics Heat recovery system design Design changes Fuel savings Energy recovery (Btu per hour) Burner operating time Cost

3 Exhaust Air Heat Recovery System 2017 System performance evaluation was initiated in Systems installed at multiple on-farm locations Wilson, Nash, Edgecombe, Johnston, Pamlico, Vance, Sampson, Brunswick VA. Multiple barn manufacturers Taylor (8 &10-box), Long (8 & 10-box), DeCloet (13-box), Tytun (18-box), Powell (9-box) Main objective to collect performance information Grower feedback on cured leaf quality Multiple years of evaluation planned

4 Heat Recovery System Schematic Heat Exchanger (preheat coil) Heat Exchanger (recovery coil) Intake Air Exhaust Air FAN Tobacco Tobacco Curing Boxes Heat Exchanger Heated Air

5 Recovery Coil Exhaust Vent Heat Exchanger (recovery coil)

6 Preheat coil Intake Vent Heat Exchanger (preheat coil)

7 10-box Long

8 10-Box Long Recovery Coil

9 18-box Tytun

10 9-box Powell, VFD

11 Performance Data Test and check barn Gas meter Temperature data Burner operating time Green and cured leaf weights

12 2016 Heat Recovery Summary Location Barn Make Cures Avg. Savings (gal) % Savings Wilson Long 10-box Brunswick, VA Tytun 18-box Sampson Taylor (new) 10-box Sampson Taylor (older) 10-box Nash Taylor 10-box * 12.1 *Natural gas (Therms)

13 2017 Heat Recovery Summary Location Barn Make Cures Avg. Savings (gal) % Savings Wilson Long 10-box Brunswick, VA Tytun 18-box Sampson Taylor (new) 10-box Sampson Taylor (older) 10-box Pamlico Powell 9-box Vance Long 8-box 4 1.3* 0.4 Nash Taylor 10-box * 4.5 Edgecombe Taylor 8-box * Natural gas (Therms)

14 Energy Recovery (Btu per hour) Energy Recovered, 10-Box Long, Wilson, NC Btu per hour Time (hours) Btu per hour

15 2017 Burner Operating Time Location Barn Make Cures Avg. Burner Operating Time Reduction (hours) Avg. Burner Cycle Reduction Wilson Long Sampson New Taylor Sampson Old Taylor

16 System Cost Item Cost Recovery coil 510 Pre-heat coil 554 Pump 85 Plumbing 655 Labor 300* Total $2,104 *25 man $12 per hour

17 Heat Exchanger Housing 8-box Long

18 Exhaust Air Heat Recovery System Summary Fuel savings averaged over the season ranged < 1% to 13% per cure (maximum savings was 29%) System may not work on all barn makes and configurations Curing time was not extended Limited differences, if any, in the cured leaf quality observed by grower System cost is approximately $2100 installed Simple payback at 13% savings is approximately 4 to 6 years (2017 prices, 8 cures per season) Plan to collect data again in 2018 at existing locations

19 On-Farm Cooperators Vick Family Farms, Wilson, NC Lake Wendell Farming Co. LLC, Wendell, NC Leggett Farming Partnership, Nashville, NC WF Partnership, Newton Grove, NC Tony Rogers, Rawlings, VA Farm Drake Farm, Pinetops, NC Stainback Farms, Middleburg, NC Whitford Farms, Grantsboro, NC

20 Acknowledgements Japan Tobacco International R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Universal Leaf North America Alliance One International NC Tobacco Research Commission

21 Undergraduate Support Kyle Bostian Ben Cranfill Alex Greeson Austin Scott

22 Questions?