Pollution and carbon reduction and curing effect of tobacco curing in alcohol-based fuel bulk curing barn

【Objective】 To explore the effects of alcohol-based fuel on reducing pollution and carbon of flue-cured tobacco leaves and its influence on the quality of flue-cured tobacco leaves，and to provide reference for energy saving and cost reducing，pollution and carbon reduction，improving the quality and efficiency of tobacco leaf curing. 【Method】 The lower leaves，middle leaves and upper leaves of flue-cured tobacco variety Yunyan 87 were used as experimental materials，and 2 types of bulk curing barns，coal-fired curing barn（CK）and alcohol-based bulk curing barn（T treatment）， were set up to compare and analyze the curing performance，energy consumption and labor，carbon emission intensity and regularity during curing，exhaust gas emission and economic traits of flue-cured tobacco leaves. 【Result】 The average absolute value of bulk curing barn temperature deviation of T treatment was significantly lower than that in CK（P<0.05， the same below），and the temperature control accuracy was better. There were no significant differences in the quantity of fresh weight of tobacco leaf，dry weight of bobacco leaf and ratio of fresh weight to dry weight between the 2 types of tobacco curing barns（P>0.05），and there were significant differences in fuel consumption and power consumption. Compared with CK，the reduced standard coal consumption of lower，middle and upper leaves under T treatment was 33.71%，36.01% and 36.43% respectively. Meanwhile，the average thermal efficiency of the system was 24.19% higher than that of CK（absolute value）. In the process of tobacco curing，the direct carbon emissions from the lower，middle and upper leaves of T treatment were reduced by 42.92%，48.33% and 45.68% respectively compared with CK at the peak carbon emission stage. The CO₂ emissions from curing 1 kg dry tobacco leaves were 35.41%，37.28% and 37.11% lower than those of CK respectively. During the curing process of middle tobacco leaves，the average emissions of 3 pollutants （SO₂，NO_x and CO）in T treatment at the curing temperatures of 38，48 and 68 ℃ were significantly lower than those of CK. The average emissions of NO_x and CO were reduced by 73.81% and 96.50% respectively compared to CK，and SO₂ was rarely produced in the curing process of T treatment. The cost of dry tobacco leaves and power consumption of T treatment were significantly higher than those of CK，but the labor cost was significantly lower than that of CK，and the labor cost of curing lower，middle and upper tobacco leaves was reduced by 87.27%，86.96% and 86.11% respectively compared with CK. Compared with CK，the average price of lower，middle and upper tobacco leaves after T treatment curing increased by 1.14，1.89 and 1.64 yuan/kg respectively. The proportions of middle and superior tobacco increased by 1.47%，8.54% and 2.43% respectively. 【Conclusion】 To sum up，the alcohol-based fuel bulk curing barn has obvious advantages over the coal-fired bulk curing barn in terms of pollution and carbon reduction，quality improvement and efficiency increase，and is suitable for promotion in areas with abundant alcohol-based production capacity.