Venturi furnace for tobacco flue-curing and grain drying
2010
Using the furnace, higher percentage (75-88%) of good quality cured tobacco leaves (grades AA-C) were obtained compared with using the traditional furnace of only 70%. At the farmers' field test, the venturi furnace consumed less than 18 cu m fuelwood per hectare costing around P8,600 compared with the consumption of a traditional furnace of more than 25 cu m costing more than P12,000. This results in savings in fuelwood consumption of up to 33% and an increased income of more than P4,000/ha due to the saved fuelwood costs. At the regional level, the use of the developed furnace could realize a total fuelwood savings of 123,778 cu m/yr (equivalent to almost a million trees) as compared to the traditional furnaces that consumes around 375,000 cu m of fuelwood. Using the venturi furnace resulted in lower curing duration of less than 5 days (105 hrs) compared with the traditional furnaces of about 5-6 days (118 hrs. average). The developed furnace saves fuelwood consumption by more than 30% compared with the traditional furnaces used by farmers resulting in lowering operating costs and increase income. Likewise, this will support regional efforts to conserve the forests. The furnace can easily be adapted for grain drying, thus ensuring the production of good quality rice for consumption and additional income of farmers. It can dry 800 kg of paddy with 18-20.2% MC [moisture content] for only 20-28 hrs using 13.5 man-hours for loading and unloading.
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