Detection of Optimum Fumigation in Grain Storage Using FUMON

Abstract

Grains are generally stored in warehouses after harvesting often for months. These stored grains are distributed to consumers through distribution channels as and when required. During such long storage, grains are affected by pests/insects and there can be considerable amount of storage losses. Pest infestation is highly affected by the temperature and relative humidity of the warehouse. In order to control such loss, a process called fumigation is performed to kill the pests by means of pesticides. The operation is hazardous and is carried out in buildings, soil and grain warehouses. Fumigation is also done during the process of export and import of goods to prevent the transfer of unusual organisms (Saeung et al., 2018 5th International conference on industrial engineering and applications (ICIEA), Singapore, 2018, pp 179–183 ( Saeung, P., Santalunai, S., Thosdeekoraphat, T., Thongsopa, C.: Improved efficiency of insect pest control system by SSPA. In: 2018 5th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Applications (ICIEA), Singapore, pp. 179–183 (2018). 10.1109/IEA.2018.8387092)). Phosphine (PH3) gas is mostly used presently to carry out fumigation in warehouses. This is important to know the performance of the fumigation process. But phosphine being highly toxic in nature, the warehouse is kept sealed during the entire fumigation period. Hence, the efficacy of fumigation during the process cannot be known. This paper describes an indirect way of checking the effectiveness of fumigation by measuring the concentration of fumigant in real time. A device named FUMON (fumigation monitoring system) is designed and developed for the said purpose. FUMON device automatically sniffs fumigant from the grain stack under fumigation at certain predefined interval of time. A PC/laptop connected to the FUMON device continuously plots the concentration (C) against time (T) and calculates the CT product value at every instance of time. The CT product value indicates the effectiveness of ongoing fumigation and seeing the value, the warehouse manager may take decision to lengthen or shorten the fumigation. Validation of the developed FUMON device is also done at Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT), Thanjavur.