Grain drying is moving into the fos­sil-free era – renewable fuel oil is coming fast

One of our main goals is to get far­mers invol­ved in the cli­ma­te discus­sion. About 14 percent of Fin­land’s green­house gas emis­sions come from agricul­tu­re, so in terms of our futu­re, sup­por­ting them is a sha­red res­pon­si­bi­li­ty for all of us, so that we can reach the emis­sions tar­gets pre­sen­ted as a nation.

Agricul­tu­re has often been cajo­led to be invol­ved in cli­ma­te talks, but ins­tead of a car­rot, only a stick has been offe­red. Far­mers can apply for sub­si­dies and inte­rest sub­si­di­sed loans for pro­duc­ti­ve invest­ments on the farm, but chan­ging the fuel used is not direct­ly encou­ra­ged, even if it is pos­sible to do it with small invest­ments. All that is nee­ded is a deci­sion to com­pen­sa­te for the fuel cost inc­rea­se, and emis­sions will drop sig­ni­ficant­ly. The­re is a real long-term quick win on offer for emis­sion reduc­tion tar­gets.”

Jou­ni Vir­ta­nie­mi, Com­mercial Mana­ger of Ant­ti-Teol­li­suus, sta­tes

House­holds recei­ve sup­port when switc­hing to a more envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly form of hea­ting. Howe­ver, this is not the case in far­ming, whe­re grain drying in par­ticu­lar requi­res con­si­de­rable invest­ment in hea­ting.

From the begin­ning of 2022, we will only deli­ver HVO-com­pa­tible hea­ters and bur­ners

Fos­sil fuel oil is cur­rent­ly by far the most com­mon ope­ra­ting ener­gy for dryers: Tens of thousands of Fin­nish farms use fuel oil as a source of ther­mal ener­gy for grain drying. Accor­ding to the sta­tis­tics of the Natu­ral Resources Ins­ti­tu­te Fin­land, 92 mil­lion lit­res of fuel oil were used for grain drying in 2020.

The tran­si­tion from fos­sil fuel oil to renewable is pos­sible with light invest­ments in equip­ment, but otherwi­se the costs remain sole­ly as the far­mer’s res­pon­si­bi­li­ty. 

Renewable fuel oil costs about 20 cents more per lit­re than regu­lar fuel oil.   Many grain pro­ducers need incen­ti­ves to switch to renewable fuels. Far­mers are hoping for help from the sta­te to com­pen­sa­te for the dif­fe­rence. 

With the help of renewable fuel oil, it is pos­sible to reduce the green­house gas emis­sions of the hea­ting requi­red for grain drying by up to 90 percent. Enti­ties built from the hea­ters, dryer models, fans and auto­ma­tion sys­tems pro­duced by Ant­ti-Teol­li­suus help reduce ener­gy con­sump­tion per kilo­gram of eva­po­ra­ted water. At the same time, green­house emis­sions are reduced”

Vir­ta­nie­mi sta­tes

By using high-qua­li­ty and renewable HVO fuel oil (Hydrot­rea­ted Vege­table Oil), emis­sions that affect local air qua­li­ty can be reduced. The distri­bu­tion infra­struc­tu­re is rea­dy, as HVO fuel oil is avai­lable from all major fuel oil suppliers.

Ant­ti-Teol­li­suus, the lea­der in the grain drying mar­ket, will supply only HVO-com­pa­tible hea­ters and bur­ners from the begin­ning of 2022. HVO-com­pa­tible bur­ners can be used as well as renewable fue­ling oil and light fue­ling oil. HVO fuel oil sui­table for hea­ting is made from was­te and star raw mate­rials.