This storage technology is one of the most advanced found on today’s market.

The technology is based on the proper selection of equipment and its precise arrangement in a storage. Depending on the duration of crop storage, a ventilation, refrigeration or humidification system is used.

The Every Air ventilation system is fundamental and is used for drying, curing, decreasing and maintaining the temperature of produce.

A refrigeration system is used when storing at high outer temperatures (in April, May, June) or when the temperature of produce has to be decreased in a short period of time like during crop harvest or while putting produce into storage.

The principle of ventilation arrangement

Inside the storage, parallel to the inner wall, a wall with vertical openings is erected through which the air gets pressured. Along the openings, containers in hermetically-sealed stacks are lined up in a certain order.

Two adjacent rows of containers form a long high passage that gets covered with special airbags at the top and at the abutting end. In this way, they from a closed tube opposite the opening from which the air is pressured.

By pressurizing the air between the rows of containers, fans create pressurized zones there. In this way, air flows through the containers and ventilates the produce. The required storage parameters are maintained with an automatic control system for ventilation, humidification, refrigeration and heating.

Refrigeration

A refrigeration system is used when storing at high outer temperatures (in April, May, June) or when the temperature of produce has to be decreased in a short period of time like during crop harvest or while putting produce into storage.

Artificial air cooling in a storage using a refrigeration system is designed in such a way so as to avoid impacting produce quality and minimize produce crusting and drying.

For this purpose, the system uses air coolers that have been specially designed for the storage of fruits and vegetables. They feature an enlarged heat-exchange finning surface and low air consumption, an enlarged fin pitch and “corridor” pipe pitch in the cooler housing, thereby achieving the lowest-possible “temperature drag.”

The specific arrangement of fans near the entrance to the air cooler provides the air drag into the heat exchanger of the air cooler, which decreases condensate falling onto the surface of the produce and lowers the rate of produce drying. It is extremely important that the minimum temperature drop in air coolers should be less than 6 degrees (Dt6k), which means that the boiling temperature of freon gas should be 6 degrees lower than the temperature in a chamber.

Automation

The required storage parameters are maintained with an automatic control system which was specially designed for vegetable storages.

It provides for the:

• Control of storage modes;
• Control of the refrigeration system;
• Control of the humidification system;
• Control of drying modes;
• Data collection and archiving;
• Monitoring and remote control.

The information can be automatically sent from the storage controller to a profile page or smartphone, where the user can review, organize and archive the relevant data.

Recommendations

There are several restrictions with this system:

1. The width of the chamber depends on the size of a container. If a container is standard size (1200x1600x1250mm), the width of the chamber should be a multiple of 4m; namely: 12m, 16m, 20m, 24m.
2. The length of a chamber should be no more than 30m, 3.5m of which is left for equipment and 2m for a suction wall.
3. The standard height of storage is 5 tiers (6 meters). It is possible to store produce in 6 tiers if there is enough space for containers and equipment operations.
4. A special container must be used.
5. Special airproof sleeves must be used.