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Everything you need to know about drying in order to safeguard your entire crop!

As long as you can measure the temperature, the relative humidity and ...

The three phases of water: solid, liquid and vapour

In relation to: the temperature, the pressure, the dew point, the absolute humidity, and the relative humidity of the air.

Phase diagram of water

Phase diagram of water

The triple point in the phase diagram of water is where the three states (solid, vapour and liquid) of a material coincide.

For the process of drying, we are only interested in the curved line between the liquid and vapour area. For instance, let's assume we have air at point A at a temperature Td of 30° Celsius and 1 atmosphere (a warm afternoon at sea level). The sun sets, and the night gets cooler and cooler (so in reality we are travelling from A to B in the diagram, Td is travelling to the left), and all of a sudden, dew starts forming. Then we know we have arrived at point B in the diagram, which indicates the dew point of the air.

As can be imagined, all these relations between Temperature, Relative and Absolute Humidity, Dew Point and Air Pressure are very complicated, and are expressed in the MOLLIER DIAGRAM shown below.

Mollier diagram

Mollier diagram

However, thanks to computers, we don't need to study this very complicated diagram in order to dry or store our crops (We leave that to our crop storage computer, the Multiserver). But, with some computing, we can establish exactly what happens to the relative humidity of the air, or what happens to its dew point when the air temperature changes.

Even better, as long as you can measure the temperature and the relative humidity, and you know your altitude (local air pressure), using some computing, you can completely control a climate in a closed environment (like a storage facility). This is possible as long you have air turbines (or ventilators), hatches, heaters (if necessary), coolers (if necessary) and humidifiers (if necessary). Then you can control the internal climate, in order to create the optimum conditions for drying, curing or storing onions, potatoes and other produce.

The next page contains a simple simulation programme..

By inputting different temperatures and relative humidities, you can get an idea of what happens in a storage facility during the drying, curing and storage processes.

Using just a computer and some sensors, a grower can control the internal conditions of their storage facility, where they keep their entire crop.

Nevertheless, from time to time things can go wrong, and therefore it is very important that the people in charge of these facilities have a basic understanding of how to deal with climate conditions.

use some simple computing, you can completely control the climate of a closed environment (like a storage facility) with:

Turbines (or ventilators), hatches, heaters (if necessary), coolers (if necessary) and humidifiers (if necessary). When you need to control an internal climate, you can create the optimum conditions for drying, curing or storing onions, potatoes and other crops.


To mechanise your post harvest processes:
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