SiroSilo Largest Grain Bin in the World
The world’s largest steel grain silo appears in the United States.
How big is its capacity?
Golden Grain Energy, LLC
On October 8, 2020, US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue & Senator Chuck Grassley visited an ethanol plant in Mason, Iowa.
Perdue made an announcement during his visit.
He said the U.S. Department of Agriculture will invest more than $9.3 million in Iowa, increasing sales of ethanol & biodiesel.
Many people attended the announcement on Thursday, including Steve Sukup, the vice-chairman of Golden Grain Energy, LLC.
Sukup said this decision will stabilize the farmers’ mentality in Iowa.
“The U.S. commodity market has been difficult.”
“We have launched a trade war against China, and farmers really need some good news.”
Construction of Golden Grain Energy’s ethanol plant began on September 14.
The Largest Steel Silo Capacity in the World
The plant will build the world’s largest corrugated steel flat bottom silo, a single silo capacity is up to 80,000 cubic meters, which can hold 2.2 million bushels of corn.
The silo diameter is 156 feet (47.55m), and its height is 155 feet (47.24m), the space in the corn bin is enough for parking a Boeing 767 passenger plane.
Chad Kuhlers, Chief Executive Officer of Golden Grain Energy, said: “This system will increase Golden Grain Energy’s grain storage from approximately 1.275 million bushels to nearly 3.5 million bushels.”
“Our current grain storage time is about 10 days, after adding this grain bin, storage time will increase to about 30 days.”
In addition, the grain receiving capacity will increase from 40,000 bushels/h to 65,000 bushels/h.”
Sukup Manufacturing Co.
Sheffield-based Sukup Manufacturing Co. is responsible for building this giant metal silo.
According to Sukup, after confirmation with their competitors, no one has ever built such a large free-span grain bin, which is the largest grain storage silo in the world.
In 2018, Sukup announced that it had set the largest silo record with a diameter of 156 feet (47.55m).
Sukup has built 2 sets of such silos for the ethanol plant Elite Octane, each one can store nearly 2 million bushels of grain.
In August 2019, GSI built a steel silo with a diameter of 156 feet (47.55m) for Red Wing Grain in Minnesota.
This new silo bin in Wabaso, Minnesota cost 905,000 pounds of steel & took about 3 weeks to complete the project.
Due to the limitation of building height, this silo is 114 feet (34.75m) high.
Corrugated Metal Grain Bins
The grain silo involved in the above news is the corrugated metal silo.
To assist you in better understanding this type of grain silo, please read the content below for reference.
What are Corrugated Metal Grain Bins?
The corrugated metal grain silo is a tower-shaped steel silo, it is assembled by pieces of galvanized corrugated sheets with an arc shape, these sheets are connected and fixed by high-strength galvanized bolts.
Such galvanized grain silo consists of three parts: bottom, body, and roof, the following figure displays its structure and main components.
Galvanized corrugated sheets with arc shape are mass-produced from galvanized steel jumbo rolls through a corrugated sheet production line.
The corrugated steel silo roll forming machine usually includes an uncoiler, leveling feeder, edge collector, roll forming machine, hydraulic punching machine, corrugated iron curving machine, hydraulic cutter, palletizer, hydraulic system, electric control system, etc.
Corrugated silos are widely used in grain and oil, chemical, brewing, pharmaceutical, food, cement, coal, and other industries to store granular grain and powdery industrial raw materials.
Types of Galvanized Steel Silo
Generally, we divide galvanized steel silos into two types: flat bottom and hopper bottom.
Flat Bottom
The flat-bottom galvanized steel silo is a corrugated silo with a flat bottom that consists of two parts: the roof and the cylinder body. It is currently the most popular grain storage equipment.
This type of silo is generally installed on a flat or conical concrete foundation and can store a large amount of corn, rice, barley, wheat, sorghum, sunflower seeds, soybeans, seeds, etc. for a long time.
Unlike the hopper bottom silo which does not need unloading equipment, the flat bottom silo needs to work together with a material discharging device, which is a sweep auger.
If your grain reserves are greater than 1,500 tons or even tens of thousands of tons, then you’d better buy a flat-bottomed steel silo. Large-capacity storage is a typical feature of flat-bottom galvanized steel silos, and its storage capacity varies from 40 cubic meters to 29750 cubic meters.
Since the large-capacity flat bottom bin has a cement foundation, no bottom support like a hopper bin is required.
Hopper Bottom
The hopper bottom galvanized steel silo is a corrugated silo with a conical bottom consisting of three parts: the top, the cylindrical body, and the hopper bottom. It is useful for storing granular products with good free flow.
Such a silo is erected on the steel supporting structure, so that the stored products can easily outflow under gravity after opening the outfeed slide gate, no need material discharging device.
Outfeed Slide Gate
If your grain reserves are less than 1500 tons, it is best to buy a hopper bottom steel silo, which is convenient for unloading grain, does not require unloading equipment, and has a low price.
For conical-bottom steel silos larger than 11m in diameter, as the diameter increases, the bottom support structure height also increases, and its construction cost also increases.
Then, the final cost will be higher than that of the flat bottom silo with the same capacity.
Pros of Corrugated Steel Bins
With the following features, corrugated steel bins are occupying more and more markets.
- Standardized galvanized corrugated sheet, which can be mass-produced industrially;
- Small footprint and large reserves, the optional reserves range from 50 to 100,000 tons;
- Wide range height & diameter for choice, the distance between two silos is less than 80cm;
- Lightweight, only one-sixth of the concrete silo with the same capacity;
- Lower cost, only 70%-80% of the same capacity concrete silo, small investment;
- Short construction period, fast installation, 15 days for a 10,000-ton silo;
- Wired & wireless grain monitoring system optional, real-time monitoring of grain;
- Dust collection system for material Loading and unloading, environmental pollution is avoidable;
- Easy for relocation.
Your Trustworthy Corrugated Steel Silo Manufacturer in China
SiroSilo has the ability to provide you with a one-stop solution for corrugated steel silo projects.
The solutions cover project consulting, project design, equipment manufacturing, equipment transportation, equipment installation & tuning, equipment maintenance, field installation guidance, and after-sales service.
Customized Design
Customize a suitable silo for you according to the following information you provide.
- General Data
- Ambient, Wind & Seismic Conditions
- Design Information
Based on the above information you provide, we could design and manufacture corrugated metal silos with 25+ years of service life for you.
Reasonable Steel Structure
SiroSilo designs and manufactures silos and steel structures in strict accordance with your local construction standards, considering the wind, snow, seismic, and process load conditions at your project site.
With our own team of steel structure engineers, we directly undertake all silo projects and will never outsource them to other companies, ensuring the quality of each project to the greatest extent.
Powerful Production Capacity
Thanks to our own production lines and extensive experience in this niche, we can control the entire manufacturing process.
Various advanced equipment is placed in our 6,800-square-meter factory building. The various silo components produced by this equipment are the quality assurance of the final installed silo.
- Corrugated Sheet Production Line
- Column Production Line
- Angle Iron Production Line
- CNC Punching Machine
- CNC Bending Machine
- Hydraulic Shearing Machine
- CNC Plasma Cutting Machine
- Laser Cutter
- Welding Robot
Strict Self-audit
The design and production of SiroSilo corrugated silos strictly follow the technical, quality, and installation requirements mentioned in the Chinese GB50205 standard.
After completing the silo installation, we carry out the following four inspections according to the inspection method specified in the GB50205 standard.
- Welding Quality Inspection
- Installation Quality Inspection
- Appearance Quality Inspection
- Silo Tolerance Inspection
Field Installation Guidance
In order to ensure that you could successfully complete the corrugated silo installation, we will arrange for professional and experienced engineers to your project site to provide you with field guidance.
These engineers can assist you to complete the corrugated silo installation quickly, efficiently, and with high quality so that you could put the silo into operation asap.
Professional After-sales Service
After the acceptance of the silo project, if you have any questions about usage, you could contact us by email, phone, WeChat, or WhatsApp, and we will arrange for sales representatives and senior engineers to serve you together, who are proficient in English.
When necessary, you could ask our sales representative and engineer to conduct a video conference with you, ensuring that we could solve your problems timely.
Email: info@sirosilo.com
WhatsApp: +8617312124727
Iconic Clients & Cases
SiroSilo has exported silos to more than 50 countries around the world and has many well-known customers in China.
- Ingredion
- COFCO
