Grain Silo Monitoring

Overview

Grain Silo Monitoring is a complete post-harvest stored-grain quality system — multi-bead temperature cables, radar level sensor, headspace CO₂, moisture (EMC) probe and aeration fan control on every silo, tied to a spoilage-risk engine that automatically runs fans to break up hotspots before they cause loss.

Built for grain co-ops, on-farm storage, malthouses, feedmills and seed companies that want to cut storage shrinkage to under 0.3%, avoid the £40,000 phone call when a hotspot turns to mould, and pass food-safety audits (FSMA-PCQI, BRC, ISO 22000) without paper.

Temperature cable — 6 to 24 sensor beads per cable, hotspot resolution to 30 cm
Headspace CO₂ — earliest possible insect & respiration alarm
Radar level sensor — non-contact, tonnage accurate to ±0.5%
Auto-aeration — fan ON when ambient T < grain T − 6 °C and RH supports drying

How It Works

The diagram above shows the four layers of a Grain Silo Monitoring deployment. Hover any module to see the live telemetry it produces.

The Silo — a temperature cable hangs down the central axis with 6–24 sensor beads, a CO₂ NDIR probe in the headspace, a radar level transmitter on the roof, EMC moisture probe inline, and 1–4 aeration fans on the cone hopper.
Aeration & Analytics — a per-bead temperature × depth bar chart drives a spoilage-risk engine that combines ΔT, EMC, CO₂ trend and forecast ambient air to schedule fan run-times automatically.
Cloud Dashboard — every silo across every site rolls up into a farm overview (tonnage, fill %, hotspots, fan run-hours, energy use), with audit-grade exports for food-safety inspectors.
Silo Manager & Alerts — push and SMS for hotspots, CO₂ spikes, level changes (suspected theft / blockage), one-tap manual fan override, and a 30-day stored history of every decision.

A continuous feedback loop pushes fan schedules, refined spoilage thresholds, EMC target curves and firmware back to the controller — visible as the purple stream along the bottom of the diagram.

Features

Temperature cable — 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 beads, ±0.3 °C, food-grade stainless & FDA-approved sheath
Radar level — non-contact, no moving parts, works in dust, ±0.5% tonnage accuracy
CO₂ NDIR — 0–5,000 ppm, ±50 ppm; earliest insect / fungal respiration warning
EMC moisture probe — inline grain-stream sensor, calibrated to crop variety
Auto-aeration control — psychrometric ON/OFF based on EMC target & ambient air quality
Spoilage-risk engine — ΔT-based hotspot detection, CO₂ trend, predictive control time
Theft / inventory alarms — unscheduled level drops trigger immediate alert
Audit exports — FSMA-PCQI, BRC, ISO 22000, GAP report packages, CSV/PDF

Use Cases

On-farm storage — wheat, barley, canola, corn, soy, rice; flat or upright silos
Grain co-ops & bulk terminals — multi-silo orchestration with central control room
Feedmills & flour mills — incoming grain quality, batch traceability
Malthouses & distilleries — barley quality preservation between harvest & malting
Seed companies — germination-protective storage, per-variety EMC targets
Ports & export terminals — pre-load quality certification, demurrage risk reduction

Specifications

Temperature cable: 6–24 beads, 1 m spacing, ±0.3 °C, 316L stainless, FDA-approved sheath
Level: radar 80 GHz, non-contact, 0–30 m range, ±5 mm; ultrasonic option
CO₂: NDIR 0–5,000 ppm, ±50 ppm + 2% reading; auto-calibration
EMC moisture: 5–30%, ±0.5%, crop-calibrated (wheat / barley / corn / canola / soy)
Fan control: 4 fan outputs per controller, 230/400 VAC contactor drive, VFD-ready 0–10 V
Connectivity: Ethernet (primary), 4G LTE (cellular variant), Wi-Fi
Power: 24 VDC controller, 90–240 VAC PSU, optional UPS
Environmental: IP66 controller cabinet, −30 to +60 °C operating; explosion-proof (ATEX Zone 22) option
Certifications: CE, FCC, RoHS, FDA-approved food-contact materials, ATEX option