Research Article
Collapsible Silo for Organic and Hermetic Storage of Dry Agricultural Commodities
| 1*, Rhee Cartin2, and Tom de Bruin3 | |
| 1Research and Development (R&D) Manager, Philippines. | |
| 2R &D Engineer, GrainPro Phils, Lot 46 Efficiency Avenue, Gateway Park, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City 2222 Philippines. | |
| 3President-Chief Executive Officer, GrainPro Phils, Lot 46 Efficiency Avenue, Gateway Park, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City 2222, Philippines | |
| Corresponding Author : | Paterno C. Borlagdan Research and Development (R & D) Manager, Philippines Tel: +251925279507 E-mail: p_borlagdan@yahoo.com. |
| Received July 27, 2015; Accepted Septemebr 18, 2015; Published Septemebr 24, 2015 | |
| Citation: Borlagdan PC, Cartin R, Bruin Tde (2015) Collapsible Silo for Organic and Hermetic Storage of Dry Agricultural Commodities. Adv Crop Sci Tech 3:188. doi:10.4172/2329-8863.1000188 | |
| Copyright: © 2015 Borlagdan PC, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
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Abstract
A study on the design and development of a collapsible hermetic silo for organic and chemical-free storage of dry agricultural commodities was conducted to verify its application under open-air field condition. Two models were fabricated with pneumatic posts to facilitate the preparatory assembly for the center top loading of grain. They were filled with dry corn and initial moisture contents were recorded. One unit was covered with grain shade material (GrainshadeTM) with the ability to reflect, on average, 75% of solar radiation, whereas the other one was not covered. Both units passed the pressure decay test (PDT), which was conducted on both models to ensure hermetic condition. Oxygen levels were monitored. A faster reduction of oxygen level was observed in the grain shade-covered storage silo, with 2.1% safe oxygen level after 4 months of storage. The higher capacity collapsible hermetic silos can be used to safely store dry agricultural commodities in open air field as they are able to maintain product quality and minimize losses without the use of chemicals.
