The document discusses a newly developed system for slowing the ripening of fruit during transport and storage. It uses E+E humidity sensors to control the humidity and nitrogen levels inside controlled atmosphere containers. The sensors ensure the fruit is kept at a high humidity between 70-95% to prevent drying out, while temperature is also stabilized. This "hibernates" the fruit and considerably reduces the ripening process, allowing transport by sea instead of air to provide potential cost savings.

1. In this system it is important that
the humidity can be kept constant
for the fruit. E+E EE16 sensors are
used to control the supply of water
into the nitrogen. The measurement
transducers which
were previously used
did not have the necessary accuracy
and above all the required stability to
protect the fruit from drying out.
For land transport, the system is in-stalled
in refrigerated trucks which
are designed for transporting food
and ensure the conditions described
there.
YOUR PARTNER IN SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
R
Ges.m.b.H.
Optimisation of FRUIT TRANSPORT
A newly developed system to slow the ripening of fruit during
transport and storage has been implemented with the aid of E+E
humidity sensors.
The system is integrated into CA (Controlled Atmosphere) containers. Here,
the oxygen is replaced by up to 98% nitrogen. As well as this, the air is com-pressed
in a cooling compressor, the water is extracted (and stored) and then
the oxygen and nitrogen are separated by means of membrane technology.
The nitrogen is fed into the container and the oxygen to the outside air.
As the fruit requires a high humidity to prevent drying, an appropriate propor-tion
of water obtained from the compression of the air is mixed with the nitro-gen.
This achieves a relative humidity of between 70 and 95%, depending on
the fruit to be transported.
The container is therefore filled with up to 98% nitrogen with a high humidity. The
temperature is also kept stable at a level that depends on the individual require-ments
of the fruit. In this atmosphere the fruit "hibernates" and the speed of the
ripening process is considerably reduced, without loss of quality. This enables
transport to be transferred from air freight to sea freight and therefore provides
potential savings.
• Application conditions
Measurement range: 10-95% rel. hum.; 0...50°C
Output: 0 - 10 V or 4-20 mA
Accuracy: ± 3% rel. hum. ± 0.5°C
EE16
Measuring transducer for humidity & temperature
Cost-effective and accurate measurement of relative
humidity and temperature.
E+E Elektronik Ges.m.b.H. • Langwiesen 7 • A-4209 Engerwitzdorf • Austria
• E+E solution
Tel: +43 (0)7235 605-0 • Fax: +43 (0)7235 605-8 • info@epluse.com • www.epluse.com
LG Linz Fn 165761 t • VAT-ID-No. ATU44043101 • place of jurisdiction: A-4020 Linz • DVR0962759