20,000-Tonne Corn Storage Facility — Mato Grosso, Brazil

Project Summary

The challenge: The client operates a rapidly expanding corn farming operation in Mato Grosso, Brazil, where the harvest window is narrow and weather conditions can shift from dry to torrential within hours. Their previous facility was designed for 8,000 tonnes and simply could not keep pace with the current 20,000-tonne harvest volume. During peak intake periods, trucks were queuing for up to 14 hours, and corn arriving at elevated moisture levels — sometimes exceeding 18% — sat in the queue without drying, leading to visible mold growth and a measurable drop in grade. The client reported that in the previous season, approximately 3.2% of the total harvest was downgraded or rejected due to quality deterioration directly linked to intake bottlenecks and inadequate drying throughput. The existing infrastructure also lacked sufficient aeration, meaning that even properly dried corn was at risk of hot spots and insect activity during the long storage periods typical of Mato Grosso's commercial cycle, where grain often sits for 90 to 180 days before shipment. The client needed a facility that could absorb the full harvest surge, protect grain quality from the moment of intake, and deliver grain to trucks at a rate that matched their logistics contract requirements of loading a 37-tonne trailer in under 12 minutes.

Our solution: Manxing engineered a purpose-built six-bin flat-bottom storage system centered on six FB-18.3 bins, each with a nominal capacity of approximately 3,350 tonnes of corn at 13.5% moisture content, providing a total working capacity of 20,100 tonnes with a small operational buffer. Each bin was fabricated from high-tensile galvanized steel with a custom eave wall height increase to withstand the region's seasonal wind loads, which can exceed 90 km/h during the Cerrado's dry-to-wet transition. The structural design incorporated reinforced roof ribs and a 30-degree roof pitch to shed heavy rainfall efficiently, while the flat-bottom configuration with a full-floor aeration system ensures uniform airflow of 0.1 m³/min/tonne, maintaining grain temperature within 3°C of ambient and preventing moisture migration even during extended storage. Two TD-50 tower dryers were installed in parallel, each rated at 50 tonnes per hour of moisture removal from 18% down to 13.5%, giving the facility a combined drying capacity of 100 tonnes per hour — enough to process the entire peak-day intake of 1,200 tonnes within a 12-hour operating window. The material handling backbone consists of a high-capacity bucket elevator rated at 200 tonnes per hour paired with a belt conveyor network that routes grain from the receiving pit through the dryer circuit and into any of the six bins via a gravity distribution manifold. A dedicated dust extraction system with cyclone separators and baghouse filters maintains air quality and meets Brazilian NR-15 occupational exposure limits throughout the intake, drying, and load-out circuits. The entire facility is monitored by a centralized control system that tracks bin temperature, moisture, and fill level in real time, enabling operators to make aeration and turnover decisions without manual inspection.

The outcome: The completed facility eliminated truck queues entirely during the most recent harvest season, with average receiving wait times dropping from 14 hours to under 30 minutes. The parallel TD-50 dryers processed peak-day volumes of 1,180 tonnes without backlog, and corn was dried to safe storage moisture within hours of arrival rather than sitting in the open air. Spoilage losses fell from 3.2% to under 0.4%, representing a quality preservation improvement of approximately 2.8 percentage points and translating to an estimated recovery of 560 tonnes of market-grade corn valued at roughly USD 112,000 at current Mato Grosso pricing. Truck loading time was reduced by 40%, from an average of 20 minutes per 37-tonne trailer to 12 minutes, allowing the client to increase daily dispatch capacity from 18 trucks to 30 without adding loading bays. The full-floor aeration system maintained grain temperatures below 22°C throughout a 150-day storage period, with no hot spots detected and no fumigation required. The client's logistics partner confirmed on-time delivery performance improved from 76% to 97%, strengthening the client's commercial relationships and enabling them to secure a premium supply contract for the following season.

Project at a Glance

Equipment Provided

Grain Bins

Grain Dryers

Handling Equipment

Project Gallery

Project Timeline

Results

• ✓ The completed facility eliminated truck queues entirely during the most recent harvest season, with average receiving wait times dropping from 14 hours to under 30 minutes. The parallel TD-50 dryers processed peak-day volumes of 1,180 tonnes without backlog, and corn was dried to safe storage moisture within hours of arrival rather than sitting in the open air. Spoilage losses fell from 3.2% to under 0.4%, representing a quality preservation improvement of approximately 2.8 percentage points and translating to an estimated recovery of 560 tonnes of market-grade corn valued at roughly USD 112,000 at current Mato Grosso pricing. Truck loading time was reduced by 40%, from an average of 20 minutes per 37-tonne trailer to 12 minutes, allowing the client to increase daily dispatch capacity from 18 trucks to 30 without adding loading bays. The full-floor aeration system maintained grain temperatures below 22°C throughout a 150-day storage period, with no hot spots detected and no fumigation required. The client's logistics partner confirmed on-time delivery performance improved from 76% to 97%, strengthening the client's commercial relationships and enabling them to secure a premium supply contract for the following season.
• ✓ Delivered on schedule with full commissioning
• ✓ 20,000 tonnes total storage capacity

"Manxing delivered on time and the system handles our entire harvest smoothly. The quality of the steel and the aeration design are outstanding."

João Silva — Operations Manager

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