Mechanized Tobacco Post-harvest Processing Complex for Leaf Curing Using Solar Energy
摘要
In the Kyrgyz Republic, a labor-intensive manual method of harvesting and stringing tobacco leaves on cords is mainly used for sun-curing of tobacco leaves, which depends on weather conditions. Uncontrolled drying of the blade of the tobacco leaf and color fixation, due to the indefinite period of sun-curing, do not ensure that the tobacco withering process is carried out in optimal modes. Economically unprofitable in the conditions of the Kyrgyz Republic is the method of artificial drying—fire-curing and drying in a dense mass, where labor costs reach from 347 to 653 man-hours per ton, and the specific fuel consumption is 1.014–2.0 t.o.e.(Smailov 2003). Taking into account the above, as well as the natural and climatic conditions of Kyrgyzstan, where during the drying period of 1, 2, 3, 4 and the 5th tobacco leaf breakage (June–September), the average daily air temperature ranges between 20 and 26 °C, and the maximum temperarure varies from 28 to 38 °C, it is quite possible to carry out the processes of withering and sun-curing of leaf blade of the marked braekages in natural conditions without the use of artificial heat. And complete curing of midrib must be carried out in the drying chamber using the heat of solar energy. Therefore, the most rational way of drying tobacco in the climatic conditions of Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan is natural (solar) and combined using mechanized production lines with 100% use of heat from solar energy. The combined method contributes to the mechanization of all types of technological operations performed during the post-harvest processing of tobacco. The article presents a general scheme of a mechanized production line for post-harvest processing of tobacco, a kinematic scheme of individual lines and sections, the sequence of the technological process of tobacco curing.