GRAIN-DRYING AND STORING METHOD AND APPARATUS THEREFOR

摘要

PURPOSE:To enable the drying and storage of grains such as rice while keeping the water-content of the grain to a prescribed level and maintaining the good taste and quality of the grain by supplying dried or moistened air from an aeration unit having an evaporator and a condenser according to the water-content of the grains in a grain storage tank. CONSTITUTION:Grains in a storage tank 12 are dried or stored by supplying air from an aeration unit 100 provided with an evaporator 58 and a condenser 60. When the water-content of the grain is higher than a prescribed level, the storage tank 12 is supplied with an air flow passed through both of the evaporator 58 and the condenser 60 or with air flows separately passed through the evaporator and the condenser to dry the grain until the water-content of the grain is lowered below the prescribed level and the operation is switched from the drying mode to the storing mode by supplying storage tank with air flow passed through the evaporator 58. In the case of storing operation, the air flow passed through the evaporator 58 is humidified with a humidifying means 118 when the humidity of air introduced into the evaporator 58 is lower than the equilibrium relative humidity necessary to keep the water-content of the grain to a prescribed level. The grains can be dried and stored by this operation while maintaining the taste and quality of the grains in desirable states.