Industrial plant to dry and cool processed sunflower seeds, etc. - uses atmospheric air in fluidised bed exhausting via predryer

摘要

A plant installation for drying and cooling vegetable oil-producing seed, partic. ground sunflower seed, after the seed has been subjected to a heating/wetting process, is of the type in which seed is dropped through a predrying chamber and from there to an air-fluidised, circular bed in the base of an upwardly divergent cyclone. Cyclone air is exhausted via the predrying chamber. The fluidised bed conveys the prod. over an annular, horizontal path and then drops it into a discharge screw conveyor. The predrying chamber now contains adjustable, slated screens, i.e. 'venetian' type, by which the angle of air flow w.r.t. prod. flow can be regulated, e.g. between 0-90 degrees. Inside the cyclone, an upwardly convergent cone leads exhaust air towards the predryer connection which has helical slots back into the convergent cone. The fluidised bed air chest has a downwardly convergent cone connected into the top of the discharge screw conveyor. This dryer/cooler is also for oatmeal, pearl barley, etc. The single, much more compact plant can process 500 tonnes in 24 hrs., compared with 200 tonnes from earlier, larger installations. Prod. quality is enhanced by much more homogeneous treatment. Atmos. air used as the cooling/drying medium is filtered through incoming seed in the predryer. This cleans the exhaust and raises prod. yield by eliminating loss of fines.