Authors: R. Abalone1, A. Gastón2
1 Fac. de Cs. Exactas Ingeniería y Agrimensura, UNR, IFIR (CONICET/UNR) Av. Pellegrini 250, (2000) Rosario, Argentina.
2 CIC-Consejo de Investigaciones de la UNR, Fac. de Cs. Exactas Ingeniería y Agrimensura, UNR. Av. Pellegrini 250, (2000) Rosario
Abstract: In this work, O2 and CO2 concentration in the interstitial atmosphere of silo-bags predicted by a diffusion model are compared with values obtained by use of the lumped capacitance model. The first one uses local values of grain temperature and moisture content to evaluate the grain respiration rate while the second applies average values of these magnitudes. Comparison were carried out for wheat stored at initial temperatures of 20, 25, 30 and 40C, MC in the range (12 -16 % w.b), under climatic conditions of the South East of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. For uniform initial moisture content, the difference between predicted mean concentration of CO2 and O2 were less than 1point %.Further, the diffusion model was applied to analyze local effects in the silo-bag: the evolution of gas concentration when there is a spot of wetter grain (16% w.b) than the rest (13% w.b) at the bottom the bag; the penetration of O2 through a small hole located at the top surface in a silo-bag initially in anaerobiosis.
