Industry Outlook

My country has clearly proposed in the 13th Five-Year Plan to "vigorously develop a circular economy, increase efforts in comprehensive environmental governance, and establish a conservation-oriented society", encourage innovation in energy-saving and environmental protection technologies, support green and clean production of enterprises, promote green transformation of traditional manufacturing industries, and establish a green, low-carbon, environmentally friendly, and circular development system. To this day, in my country's vast rural areas, there are still a large number of coal-fired hot air furnaces that provide heat sources for agricultural product processing. Not only does it consume a large amount of non-renewable fossil raw materials such as coal every year, but it also produces a large amount of smoke, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides after combustion. The emission indicators are far higher than the current national and industry standards, and are one of the main sources of pollution in rural areas. Many biomass pellet hot air furnaces on the market are improved based on the previous coal-fired hot air furnaces. There are generally problems such as incomplete combustion, black smoke, low thermal efficiency, substandard environmental protection parameters, and substandard safety performance (if there is leakage in the heat exchange components, high-temperature flue gas will enter the dryer and cause fires and other safety accidents). After nearly ten years of continuous research and continuous improvement, Changzhou Zhengyi Bio-Renewable Energy Equipment Co., Ltd. has designed and produced a brand-new air-supplying CNC biomass pellet hot air furnace with compact structure, reliable quality, superior performance, good safety, digital control, and excellent environmental protection indicators. This hot air furnace is different from the biomass pellet hot air furnace on the market that is transformed from a coal-fired hot air furnace template. Instead, it has a brand-new structural form and is a biomass pellet hot air furnace with a high degree of automation.

Since it was put on the market in 2016, there has not been a safety accident of leakage and fire in the heat exchange part. It is a truly safe and reliable environmentally friendly product. In 2019, together with Jiangsu Agricultural Machinery Technology Extension Station, Jiangsu Agricultural Machinery Testing and Identification Station, Nanjing Mechanization Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other authoritative units, the Jiangsu Provincial Group Standard "Air Supply CNC Biomass Pellet Hot Air Furnace" (T/JSAMIA 008-2019) was drafted. In 2021, the Jiangsu Provincial Local Standard "Biomass Pellet Hot Air Furnace Operation Procedure" (DB 32/T4195-2021) was jointly formulated and issued with Jiangsu Agricultural Machinery Technology Extension Station.

At present, there are three main ways to use clean energy to replace traditional coal-fired and oil-fired hot air furnaces in the grain drying industry: one is to use air source heat pump dryers, the second is to use gas dryers, and the third is to use biomass pellet hot air furnaces. The above three transformation methods have been verified by actual use and are considered feasible. Among them, biomass pellet hot air furnaces and air source heat pumps not only have good environmental performance, but also have the characteristics of energy saving and safety. Taking the provision of drying heat energy for three 15T dryers as an example, a simple analysis of the investment costs and future use costs of the above three methods is made:

1. The principle of air source heat pump grain dryer is to absorb the heat in the air through the compressor in the refrigeration system, and add a part of the electric energy consumed for the refrigeration system to generate heat, and send both parts of heat energy to the dryer to dry the grain. It has the characteristics of environmental protection, safety and energy saving. If you want to provide heat energy for three 15T dryers, in addition to installing a larger capacity transformer and transmission lines, the user also needs to match three air source heat pumps of about 34KW/unit. The purchase cost of each air source heat pump is about 80,000 yuan, and the total cost of air source heat pump transformation is about 240,000 yuan. The cost of using air source heat pump to dry grain is: about 1.5-2 cents/jin for drying wheat and 2-3 cents/jin for rice. It can be seen from this that the cost of air source heat pump transformation is lower than that of natural gas transformation, but higher than that of biomass pellet hot air furnace transformation, and its use cost is basically the same as that of biomass pellet hot air furnace. There are three issues in the air source heat pump drying transformation that are still worth our attention: First, the drying time is long. The air source heat pump generally takes about 30 hours to dry, which is slower than the biomass and natural gas drying speed. Second, the air source heat pump is very sensitive to the ambient temperature. When the ambient temperature is high, its drying cost is basically the same as the cost of using a biomass pellet hot air furnace for drying. However, when the ambient temperature is low, the heat energy that the air source heat pump can absorb from the air is greatly reduced. At this time, the hot air temperature that the air source heat pump can generate is very low, the drying efficiency is greatly reduced, the drying time is increased, and the drying cost can even exceed the natural gas drying cost. Sometimes there will be extreme situations where the moisture content of grain cannot be reduced. Third, the air source heat pump has high requirements for environmental cleanliness. When there is more dust or other impurities in the air, it will be adsorbed to the surface of the evaporator, greatly reducing the efficiency of the evaporator in absorbing heat energy from the air, thereby reducing the heat pump outlet temperature, increasing the drying time, and increasing the drying cost.

2. At present, the biggest investment cost of using gas dryers is the natural gas account opening fee. The account opening fees vary from place to place. Taking Liyang Haibin Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative as an example, the natural gas account opening fee is 300,000 yuan, the natural gas burner is 5,000 yuan per unit, three burners are 15,000 yuan, and the natural gas transformation cost is 315,000 yuan. The cost of using natural gas to dry wheat is 6-7 cents/catty, and the cost of drying rice is 8-10 cents/catty. It can be seen from this that the cost of natural gas transformation is high, and the cost of future use is also high. There are two important factors that must be paid attention to in natural gas transformation: First, there must be a natural gas pipeline network nearby to meet the transformation conditions. Once it is far away from the natural gas pipeline network, it is almost impossible to meet the transformation conditions. The natural gas account opening fee is not something that every household can afford. Second, since natural gas is flammable and explosive, there will be a risk of leakage and explosion during use.

3. Using a SY-4500 (450,000 kcal) biomass pellet hot air furnace can meet the drying needs of three 15T dryers. The transformation cost is 126,000 yuan, which includes the hot air furnace sales price, transportation costs (within Jiangsu Province), hot air furnace and air duct installation costs, commissioning and other costs. The user does not need to spend other expenses. The use of biomass pellet hot air furnace is almost unaffected by the region, season, weather, environmental cleanliness, etc., and is far superior to other drying methods in terms of applicability, reliability and safety. After a long-term follow-up investigation and statistical calculation of the use cost of the hot air furnace sold by Changzhou Zhengyi Bio-Renewable Energy Equipment Co., Ltd., it is concluded that the cost of wheat drying is 1.5-2 cents/catty (the use cost includes fuel cost and electricity cost), and the cost of rice drying is 2-3 cents/catty (the use cost includes fuel cost and electricity cost).

The air supply type CNC biomass pellet hot air furnace has good economic benefits and huge market prospects. Jiangsu Province, Shanghai and other provinces and cities have also included the transformation of fuel dryers and coal-fired hot air stoves in the scope of subsidies, encouraging more people to participate in the upgrading of biomass hot air stoves.