Inner cyclic cooling aeration on stored maize in large commercial warehouses in Northeast China

ABSTRACT

Controlling grain temperatures is the main approach employed in large commercial warehouses to maintain quality and prevent infestation by insects and fungi. Large commercial warehouses in northeast China have been utilizing inner cyclic cooling aeration (ICCA), a newly developed method for managing summertime temperatures, haphazardly and without tight standards. We utilized a homemade detector to track the temperature, humidity, and CO₂ concentrations of maize that was held for four years under ICCA treatment. The monitoring occurred every week, specifically from July 1st to September 30th. In addition, we conducted weekly tests to determine the moisture content (MC) and free fatty acids (FFA) of the stored maize samples. Without the use of ICCA, the average temperature of the stored maize above a depth of 3.5 m ranged from 20°C to 28°C, and the relative humidity (RH) in the headspace was typically higher than 75%. However, when ICCA was applied, the average temperature could be maintained at 22°C, and the RH was below 65% for most of the time. In the first year, the MC of the stored maize at a depth of 1.0 m experienced a loss of approximately 0.5%. However, for one year, there was no significant loss in the MC of the maize stored at the same depth. Furthermore, the FFA in the stored maize at a depth of 1 m increased by 1–5 mg KOH/100 g. The use of ICCA effectively controls the temperature and RH in the stored maize, reducing the risk of insect and fungal reproduction.

KEYWORDS:

• Large warehouses
• stored maize
• inner cyclic cooling aeration
• temperature
• CO₂

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the grain reserve companies for providing the testing grain and laboratory consumables in this research.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10942912.2023.2285230

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Youth Science Fund for National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 32102034; National key R&D Plan, grant number 2017YFD0401003-3.