What is condensation drying?
Equans has developed an excellent way of drying and preserving onions and other agricultural products. Condensation drying: a solution where you operate in a CO2-neutral way, no dependency on unfavourable weather conditions and expensive germ inhibitors. It ensures maintained product quality, minimal weight loss and significantly reduced energy costs (up to 80%), resulting in increased profits.
How does condensation drying work?
The condensation drying system is actually a refrigeration and heating system in one. This unique technology brings the air in the storage room below condensation point, removing a lot of moisture and allowing products such as onions, ginger, cabbage and garlic to dry. The heat released during the cooling process can be reused. Cooled air can hardly absorb moisture. By heating air with the heat released, air will absorb moisture again. Once enough moisture has evaporated from the product, you can heat the product up for disease control.
Do you want to control the conditions for drying, heating and storing onions? Then choose condensation drying.
Request a free information brochureMaximum energy efficiency, CO2 neutral
While the energy-efficient heat pump uses the heat released from the cooling process (drying process) to heat up products or keep them at temperature, solar panels generate the fraction of energy that is required for this. In this way, you achieve the maximum achievable energy efficiency, and you can achieve CO2-neutral or even energy-positive storage.
Intelligent operating system
The entire system is controlled by an in-house developed operating system that can be operated and monitored both locally and remotely via PC or smartphone. Condensation drying can be used with or without external shutters. The hatch control has been so refined that you can take advantage of favourable outside air conditions and combine them with the drying capacity of the condensation dryer. The intelligent operating system controls the hatches and ventilation fans with extreme accuracy. If you decide not to use the outside air for a while, the system automatically switches to a closed environment, giving you the best of both worlds.
Prevents quality loss
The need for controlled drying and storage arises from the loss of quality and high energy costs associated with conventional storage methods. Traditionally, farmer have relied on the outside air to dry and cool harvested crops. However, the quality of outdoor air almost is almost never sufficient to maintain product quality. In addition, climate change is causing too much variability in outdoor air conditions.
Avoids high costs
In conventional storage, you can solve this by heating the outside air with gas heaters, allowing the air to absorb more moisture. However, this costs a lot of gas, with the additional disadvantage that for every kilogram of propane gas burned, 1.6 kilograms of moisture is released. Again, this moisture has to be disposed of, adding another 10% to the gas consumption. Drying and storing arable products in the conventional way, therefore, costs a lot of money, is harmful to the environment and leads to a loss of quality. Thanks to condensation drying, you no longer have to worry about this, because you no longer need outside air and gas heaters. If the outside air conditions are still favourable, you can take advantage of them by simply opening the hatches.
Existing technology reapplied
This high quality drying and storage method is not new. We have been using condensation drying technology in cheese storage and climate chambers for years. The results in that industry got us thinking and eventually led to the development of an effective approach for agriculture and the storage of crops such as onions and potatoes. Our broad experience in different industries helps us to continue to innovate. It inspires us to translate techniques that work well in one market to other markets, and condensation drying of crops is a good example of this.
We first developed and successfully applied the condensation drying system to dry and store onions. Since then, the technology has been developed so that arable farmers can also benefit from it for the storage of sweet potatoes, bulbs, ginger, cabbage, garlic and valerian. For potato growers, it is an interesting solution for drying potatoes that come from the field very wet.
Condensation drying results
Since the introduction of condensation drying, enthusiasm among farmers has grown. There are now dozens of installations in the Netherlands and abroad. Growers are very enthusiastic because condensation drying gives them much more control over the product during the drying and storage phases. As a result, growers can maintain quality for longer and respond better to market conditions. Margins on the product are still good at the end of the season.
Awarded a sustainability label
Our condensation drying technology has been awarded the Solar Impulse Efficient Solutions label. This makes it one of 1,000 clean solutions in the world that protect the environment and provide a quick return on investment. It has a proven positive impact on the environment and is a profitable customer solution.
