Smart Onion Storage with Energy Harvesting Using IoT

Considering nutritional benefits, culinary uses, and economic importance, onions are cultivated all over the world. Storage for a long time with optimized quality is still one of the major problems in onion storage. This abstract is aimed to be used in innovative methods of shipping containers in conjunction with onion storage, providing a sustainable and efficient method of maintaining onion quality for any durations of time. The storage variables that have been reviewed include temperature, relative humidity levels, ventilation strategies, and gas composition. A number of experiments under controlled environmental conditions were conducted to understand these responses of onion sprouting, rotting, weight loss, and sensory attributes such as taste, texture, and appearance. Detailed data analysis and statistical methods were applied to obtain meaningful insights and optimize the storage conditions. Results indicate that the storage system in shipping containers offers vital benefits for a prolonged duration of onion storage. The containers efficiently minimize sprouting, rotting, and weight losses through maintaining the temperature range of 0 to 4°C and the relative humidity from 65 to 75%. Nonetheless, additional enhancement of the performance of storage can be realized if the proper ventilation system, along with regulatory control of the composition of the atmosphere by levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide, is adopted. Several benefits can be envisaged from the proposed method, including reduced post-harvest losses, increased marketability of stored onions, extended shelf life, and improved management of the supply chain. Moreover, this technique satisfies the sustainability goals since it makes use of already existing infrastructure, namely shipping containers, reduces consumption of energy, and minimizes waste generation.