Waste Oil Fuels This Crop Dryer

Waste Oil Fuels This Crop Dryer ENERGY Waste Oil 3-2-14 Using waste oil to dry crops is an idea that works, according to Gordon Kanpp, Foxhome, Minn., who plans to expand his waste oil drying operation this year. Last fall, he ganged five 90,000 btu waste oil burners under a metal canopy and used the heat to take 5 points of moisture out of sunflowers in his Hume batch dryer. He figures he saved 165 gal. of LP-gas per day. Knapp used Kutrieb waste oil burners which have been featured in previous issues of FARM SHOW. "We burned about 50 gal. of oil a day which we bought from a local trucking firm and car dealer for 10 cents a gal. We didn't have to pay but doing so guaranteed us a supply," Knapp told FARM SHOW. The dryer's intake fan pulls heat directly off the smokeless, odorless Kutrieb heaters surrounding the 6 ft. sq. canopy, which cost about $125 to build. This year, Knapp plans to use the new 500,000 btu Kutrieb waste oil burning furnaces that are slated for introduction soon. He'll build a new housing or canopy for them. Knapp adds that filters on the Kutrieb waste oil burners have to be cleaned daily. "Except for this small bit of maintenance, they babysit themselves so long as you keep feeding them waste crankcase oil. It's amazing how much you can cut drying costs." Knapp sells the Kutrieb waste oil heaters, and the new furnace soon to be introduced, in conjunction with his commercial seed operation. For more details, contact; FARM SHOW Followup, Knapp Seed Farm, Foxhome, Minn. 56543 (ph 218 739-3366).

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