Facilities

Stores

Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research has unique facilities within the UK for research using controlled environment (CE) storage. The Unit's primary resource is a suite of 42 CE storage rooms across four capacities, some with controlled atmosphere (CA) capability.

Controlled environment and controlled atmosphere storage

• 24 tonne bulk/16 tonne box CE rooms
  Our six newly-built 24 tonne bulk or 16 tonne box stores are housed in a new building. These can be configured to operate on refrigeration or ambient air cooling with overhead throw, suction or letterbox ventilation and virtually any commercial storage configuration can be simulated under controlled scientific conditions. The stores feature inverter-controlled fans and pump systems for optimal efficiency and are capable of storage at sub-zero temperatures. This facility was built with RDPE support*.

• 12-tonne CE rooms
  SBCSR has twelve stores of this capacity which can be configured to operate on refrigeration or ambient air cooling with overhead or letterbox style ventilation. A wide range of commercial storage conditions can be simulated for research purposes.

• 6-tonne CE rooms
  10 rooms are capable of holding up to six standard size one-tonne pallet boxes or up to 300 10kg capacity trays on racks. Refrigeration is used for temperature control.

• 3-tonne CE rooms
  14 rooms each equipped with continuous refrigeration and recirculation. Each room holds up to 300 10kg trays providing ample capacity for replicated small-scale storage trials.

• Controlled atmosphere cabinets
  These small-scale cabinets are capable of maintaining modified oxygen, carbon dioxide and other atmospheric component conditions within the fully controlled temperature regimes of the CE rooms. The fourteen cabinets allow detailed investigations to be undertaken using a wide range of atmospheric conditions.

*The new development at SBCSR in 2009/10 was part-funded by an RDPE grant within a programme supported by Defra (through emda) and the European Union.