north central Iowa, Hampton | Google "Equilibrium Moisture Content" You'll find charts that have a matrix of temp and relative humidity. If you have a bin of soybeans and can find air that's 60 degrees and 70% humidity, you could run the fans non-stop for 100 years and still have 13% beans.
When I'm adjusting a bin, I like to make small adjustments, not shock it with real wet air. Look on the chart, figure out when the Eq. Moisture is right and run fans. My reasoning is that I don't want to create a big drying or wetting front and then stall it out.
I run the fans to get everything cooled off, then look for the right air over the next month or so. Sometimes works better than others, but I don't have cables in the bin to monitor, so I just try to run the "right" air through my beans. I generally look for a Relative Humidity of 65 - 75%. If that's 4 hours a day--ok, as long as I make small changes.
Oh, and technically if you're adding moisture, the beans could expand, but I've never had a problem trying to gain a point or so. Even if all you do is avoid drying them more while cooling--you win. It's legal and ethical if the beans just happen to gain moisture due to the air they're in. It's not if they happen to gain moisture because you're adding something like real water. |
Running fans on soybeans
