Climate change is posing serious challenges for the storage of agricultural products in silos across Europe. High temperatures and extreme weather events not only affect the quality of stored products but also the integrity of silo materials, potentially causing significant economic losses.
Frequent heatwaves directly impact grains and other products in silos, making them vulnerable to deterioration and bacterial contamination. Silos, made of steel, concrete, and composite materials, have specific vulnerabilities:
Steel: Prone to corrosion from humidity and chemicals, and to cracking from expansion and contraction due to temperature fluctuations.
Concrete: Can crack from drying shrinkage and freeze-thaw cycles, allowing water and chemicals to penetrate and further deteriorate the material.
Composite Materials: Susceptible to UV degradation and damage from impact and abrasion.
The deterioration of these materials and high temperatures can result in economic losses. The severity of heatwaves and droughts in Europe has tripled in the last 50 years, reducing crop yields and increasing food prices. Losses of stored products mean not only direct income loss but also higher costs for repairing and maintaining damaged silos.
In our next article, we will explore the innovative solutions that Cooling Photonics offers for this problem. Don’t miss it.
Comments