When on the lookout for new and interesting ideas at Manitoba Ag Days’ Innovation Showcase, it’s essential to ask one question: what makes your product innovative? Such was the question I asked of Wavcor’s chief technical officer Jason Griffith earlier this year as I passed by his booth and saw the company’s Airblast fan on the show floor.
As Griffith spoke, what caught my attention is where the Airblast fan gets heat to dry grain. It doesn’t have a traditional, dedicated heat source such as a burner or heating element to dry grain: it uses the heat generated by its 22-horsepower Kohler engine for that task.
The Airblast runs on either propane or natural gas — so, internal combustion = heat — and because it isn’t tied to one spot by an electrical connection, the fan is easily moved from bin to bin as needed.
“The way it’s designed, all of the air is flowing over the engine so any air moving over it will pick up heat from the engine,” Griffith says. “We’ve also placed a heat exchanger under the engine.”
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The heat exchanger picks up the heat generated by the exhaust, while the fan pushes out any exhaust gases so they can’t enter a grain bin. The overall design provides up to 130,000 BTU of free heat, or an approximate 10 C increase in air temperature.
Wavcor estimates the engine consumes about nine litres of propane per hour when drying grain and about three litres per hour when cooling grain. Griffith notes the Kohler engine pushes air at the equivalent of a 20-horsepower electric fan.
While a traditional grain dryer has far more heating capacity to dry grain, the portable nature of the Airblast could be a benefit for farmers with bins in remote locations. As for attaching the fan to a grain bin, that’s accomplished using an air sock.
“We manufacture the air socks and can make whatever they need,” Griffith adds. “It’s easy to hook up to the bin and that’s why a lot of guys move it between bins as it’s not tied to one bin.”
Wavcor manufactures its Airblast fan out of Saskatoon.
