Verifying Efficiency in Cooling and Storage Systems for Onion and Potato Drying Using the KATflow 100 Flow Meter

This long-established, family-run company supplies refrigeration and storage systems to its customers with the goal of enabling them to store vegetables for up to six months after harvest without compromising the quality of the crop and without having to worry about a decline in market value. Process measurement technology and data acquisition play a major role in ensuring process reliability and cost savings for customers.

When it comes to storing agricultural products, nothing is left to chance today. In addition to technical and structural design approaches, it is primarily ventilation and cooling systems—along with their integrated control solutions—that counteract the natural decay of a vegetable harvest (typically after four to eight weeks) during the drying and storage process, and can thus be the key to success. The Upper Bavarian company Gaugele GmbH offers vegetable growers agricultural storage solutions for harvested produce at precisely this high standard. Extensive experience in vegetable storage is combined with essential, custom-designed cooling systems and corresponding integrated control solutions. The result is state-of-the-art cooling and storage systems, along with the assurance for customers that they can store vegetables such as onions or potatoes for up to six months after harvest without fear of a decline in quality or even spoilage of their crop. This extended storage period of up to half a year is precisely what is desired. It enables vegetable producers to secure revenue well beyond the harvest season, regardless of the time of year.

In addition, Gaugele GmbH advocates for public funding from the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) in connection with the implementation of particularly energy-efficient storage solutions. The company is familiar with the various BAFA funding options available for different types of facilities, ensuring that projects for its customers are implemented in accordance with BAFA’s funding requirements. Purchasers of a climate-controlled agricultural storage facility from Gaugele GmbH receive, so to speak, a government-guaranteed subsidy, but are also subject to certain reporting requirements vis-à-vis the BAFA.
The core elements of Gaugele GmbH’s climate control for cooling and ventilation systems are the monitoring of refrigerant flow rates and heat loads. In the past, mechanical systems—so-called paddle flow meters—were used to monitor the high flow rates in the process. The high pressures involved usually led to damage to these devices, which is why the search for a new solution focused on non-contact technology. “A functioning measurement system,” according to Gaugele, “is the basic prerequisite for investing in such equipment.” The required “flexibility of Katronic’s flow measurement systems and their range of selectable process interfaces used in today’s industrial landscape” were a second key consideration for Gaugele GmbH, for the purpose of meeting reporting requirements and securing the associated subsidies for their customers.

In this specific case, climate control for Gaugele’s agricultural storage facilities is implemented using an in-house control unit. The control unit ensures optimal freshness of the stored goods while operating as energy-efficiently as possible. It regulates the cooling and ventilation systems of the onion and potato drying facilities. In addition, the climate control system records all relevant data on flow rates and heat quantities from the process so that this data can later be bundled and automatically transmitted to the BAFA via the Modbus protocol. Continuous documentation of the system’s energy efficiency is a prerequisite for ultimately receiving the corresponding financial subsidies from the BAFA. The obligation to provide proof of energy efficiency to the BAFA lasts for five to ten years.

Today, a stationary KATflow 100 ultrasonic flow meter, installed on pipeline sections with nominal diameters ranging from DN 80 … 150 mm, is sold as a reliable component solution for verification purposes whenever Gaugele GmbH delivers one of its custom-designed, energy-efficient onion or potato drying systems to customers.