Cutting fuel costs in tobacco curing

The single biggest lever is airflow. If air takes the easy path around the load instead of through it, you burn fuel heating leaf that never gets the airflow it needs, and you cure unevenly on top of it. Fans, air routes and loading all have to be matched so the air is pushed through the tobacco.

So we size the airflow package to the tunnel and the loaded crop rather than fitting a fan and hoping. Even airflow means you reach curing temperature on less fuel and hold it more steadily.

ROC heat exchangers run on a dry-heat system, so there is no boiler to keep hot, treat, or pressure-test. That removes a whole layer of standing losses and maintenance cost. No water treatment, no boiler attendant, and no heat bleeding off a hot water circuit between cures.

It also cuts what you spend keeping the system running: less coal, less diesel for generator power, and less electricity, because the heat you pay for goes into the cure.

After airflow and heat source, the wins are in the details. A tunnel that is sealed so heat does not leak, a load that is spaced evenly so no lane is starved or overfed, and a system simple enough to actually maintain between cures.

A lot of our time goes into research and development, looking for ways to take cost out of the cure. Our current project is curing tobacco with grass, which is widely available on most farms and far cheaper than coal.

It is still in development, not a product yet, but the aim is straightforward. If a farmer can cure on a fuel that grows on the farm instead of one they have to buy and haul, the running cost of a season drops sharply. When it is proven on our own crop, the way our systems always are before we sell them, we will make it available.