Tobacco Tunnel

Project Overview: 62 Ha tunnel built in 2 stages to cure a total of 124Ha of tobacco in one season.

Configuration:

  • 36Ha was built as the first stage with one heatsource. The heatsource consists of a 3.3m kettle with 3 banks of 3.3m x 1.8m of radiators. The furnace is stoked by a 300lb per hour stoker on an automated thermostat monitoring air and water temperature. There are 2x3Hp fans and 1x2Hp fan blowing a maximum of 55 000cfm of air through the radiators into the tunnel. A dry heat exchanger with a 150 pound per hour stoker and a 3Hp fan was designed at the end of the tunnel to duct warm air to specific part of the tunnel to control humidity within the tunnel.
  • The second stage added another heatsource and an extra 3 lanes of drying capacity. On an 8-day cure (1 day in the green-bay, 7 days in the tunnel), the tunnel is capable of curing 36 trolleys with 180 clips of tobacco per day.