Alcohol-Fired Crop Dryer
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"About all we did to adapt it to burn alcohol was to wire around the electric eye on the burner," explains Wayne Zickafoose, sales manager of Sukup Mfg., Sheffield, Iowa. The company manufactures the Heatway fuel oil burner for crop drying which also doubles as a furnace, and which was first featured in the July-August, 1977, issue of FARM SHOW.
"The burner's electric eye is designed to shut off the flow of fuel oil if the flame goes out," explains Zickafoose. "With alcohol, the flame was so clear and colorless that the electric eye couldn't detect it. So, to keep the valve open, we had to wire around it."
The Sukup Heatway burner has a capacity of up to 1,000,000 btu's/hr. It's indirect fired, which means no fumes exhaust into the crop but go up an inner chimney. Because of this design for exhausting fumes and odors, the Heatway burner can be used as a furnace to heat farm shops, livestock barns or other buildings.
Compared to fuel oil at 138,000 btu's per gallon, propane at 97,560 and gasoline at 125,000, a gallon of 160 proof alcohol has about 84,000 btu's, says Zickafoose.
"We have a fuel oil furnace in our farm home which I plan to fire with straight 160 proof, home-brewed alcohol this winter," he told FARM SHOW. He plans to use an experimental commercial still which Sukup Mfg. has under development to produce the alcohol from shelled corn grown on his farm. "Because alcohol is lower in btu's than fuel oil, I'll have to put in larger jets on the burner. I don't anticipate having to do anything else in switching the furnace from fuel oil to straight alcohol."
Retail cost of Sukup Heatway fuel oil burner for crop drying is $1,739, not including a fan. Sukup makes a centrifugal fan in 5 to 20 hp, sizes which is designed to work in conjunction with the Heatway burner.
For more details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Sukup Mfg. Co., Sukup Parkway, Sheffield, Iowa 50475 (ph 515 892-4222).
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Alcohol-Fired Crop Dryer GRAIN DRYERS Grain Dryers (29E) 3-6-2 "About all we did to adapt it to burn alcohol was to wire around the electric eye on the burner," explains Wayne Zickafoose, sales manager of Sukup Mfg., Sheffield, Iowa. The company manufactures the Heatway fuel oil burner for crop drying which also doubles as a furnace, and which was first featured in the July-August, 1977, issue of FARM SHOW.
"The burner's electric eye is designed to shut off the flow of fuel oil if the flame goes out," explains Zickafoose. "With alcohol, the flame was so clear and colorless that the electric eye couldn't detect it. So, to keep the valve open, we had to wire around it."
The Sukup Heatway burner has a capacity of up to 1,000,000 btu's/hr. It's indirect fired, which means no fumes exhaust into the crop but go up an inner chimney. Because of this design for exhausting fumes and odors, the Heatway burner can be used as a furnace to heat farm shops, livestock barns or other buildings.
Compared to fuel oil at 138,000 btu's per gallon, propane at 97,560 and gasoline at 125,000, a gallon of 160 proof alcohol has about 84,000 btu's, says Zickafoose.
"We have a fuel oil furnace in our farm home which I plan to fire with straight 160 proof, home-brewed alcohol this winter," he told FARM SHOW. He plans to use an experimental commercial still which Sukup Mfg. has under development to produce the alcohol from shelled corn grown on his farm. "Because alcohol is lower in btu's than fuel oil, I'll have to put in larger jets on the burner. I don't anticipate having to do anything else in switching the furnace from fuel oil to straight alcohol."
Retail cost of Sukup Heatway fuel oil burner for crop drying is $1,739, not including a fan. Sukup makes a centrifugal fan in 5 to 20 hp, sizes which is designed to work in conjunction with the Heatway burner.
For more details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Sukup Mfg. Co., Sukup Parkway, Sheffield, Iowa 50475 (ph 515 892-4222).
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