Agricultural-product production with heat and moisture recovery and control

A method comprising:

• transferring heat and moisture from a warm, moist exhaust air to incoming agricultural material;
• steam conditioning the material;
• processing the steam-conditioned material into warm processed product, wherein the processing of the steam-conditioned material includes pelletizing and the processed product includes warm pellets;
• cooling the warm pellets with air to produce the warm, moist exhaust air used in the transferring of heat and moisture to the incoming agricultural material and to produce cooled pellets, wherein the cooled pellets are at a temperature lower than a temperature of the warm, moist exhaust air;
• and
• spraying water on the warm pellets before cooling in order to improve a pellet durability index (PDI).

A method comprising:

• transferring heat and moisture from a warm, moist exhaust air to incoming agricultural material;
• steam conditioning the material;
• processing the steam-conditioned material into warm processed product, wherein the processing of the steam-conditioned material includes forming the steam-conditioned material into discrete pieces and the processed product includes the discrete pieces;
• cooling the warm processed product with air to produce the warm, moist exhaust air used in the transferring of heat and moisture to the incoming agricultural material and to produce cooled processed product, wherein the cooled processed product is at a temperature lower than a temperature of the warm, moist exhaust air;
• and
• adding a controlled amount of dry, heated air based on the temperature of the exhaust air.