The end customer requirement
The end customer needs to build a banana ripening plant, which guarantees precise control of the temperature in the cell, managed in heating and cooling mode, depending on the specific moment of the ripening cycle.
The plant must be able to reconcile the time taken to load the bananas, which arrive in containers by ship, with the capillary deliveries to the logistics centres of large-scale retailers.
Storage description
The solution is made up of 2 large storage cells, which act as a buffer, and 15 cells in which the bananas ripen in five days, in different cycles, and are then packaged and shipped throughout Italy.
Storage informations
The cooling capacity used is 400 kW in the two storage cells and 66 kW for each ripening cell.
Each of the 15 ripening cells contains 48 pallets, with a total of 50,000 kg of product.
The total amount of bananas ripened in one year is around 39,000 tonnes.
Stefani’s solutions
Installed products
In the storage cells: special GRECALE air coolers.
The special Grecale air coolers are equipped with 6 Ziehl-Abegg pressing electronic fans, series ZAPlus, 560 mm.
In the ripening cells: special dual flow air coolers, with 6 Ziehl-Abegg electronic reversible fans, series Maxvent, 630 mm.
The air coolers were designed in collaboration with Ziehl, the fan manufacturer, to ensure the high standards of energy efficiency required by the end customer.
Built to a specific design, these special air coolers guarantee a fine control of the process which results in a 30% saving in electricity consumption, compared to units with IE2 reversible AC fans, and an improvement in ripening time, which is reduced by 1 day per cycle.
Advantage obtained
The customised design of these air coolers offers a marked improvement in product quality after ripening and consumption levels 30% lower than those offered by a conventional system.
Description
Designed for one of our loyal customers, who owns major tropical fruit ripening facilities in both Italy and South America, these air coolers guarantee the highest quality of bananas. The customer is particularly demanding as regards ventilation efficiency, which is essential for homogeneous banana ripening.
