Analysis of the building system of four mills and their suitability for heat treatment pest disinfestation

The last century researchers at Kansas State University demonstratedthe validity of the heat treatment as a method of pest control in morethan 20 mills. However factors such as the high capital investmentrequired to heat large buildings, inadequate control of high temperaturesand the risk of damage to parts of the plants or the constructionmaterials have prevented the large-scale adoption of this technique as aviable alternative to fumigants. Today the combination of the industrializationof the food industry, the technological and structural modernizationof plants and developments in heat disinfection technologies haveresulted in interesting results being obtained for the use of this systemin primary and secondary production processing plants, both experimentallyand in practice. However, the scientific literature highlights someof the factors that limit the efficiency of the treatment. This is related toaspects of the buildings and the plants and the environment of the buildings.The structure of the buildings appear to have an enormous impacton energy consumption, because this depends on the amount of heatingtime and the methods that have to be used when establishing a heattreatment regime. These factors are important if the fumigation temperaturesare to be reached in the shortest possible time and can affect thechoice of the technique used with current fumigants, especially whenthis is combined with the amount and cost of the energy consumed. Theaim of this work is to analyse four Sicilians mills that intend to use theheat system for fumigation and pest control in order to identify thoseaspects of the buildings, plant and their environment which are “criticalelements” and may discourage the use of this technology. Particularattention was paid to the type of construction materials and their thermalconductivity (roof, floors and walls), the number and volume of thebuildings and the distance between them, the entrances and the linksbetween different parts of the plant and the type of equipment used andits spatial organisation inside the buildings.