Development of environment friendly thermoelectric mobile refrigeration system for summer fruits and vegetables
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Date
2020
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
A mobile thermoelectric refrigeration system of 100 liter storage capacity and cold temperature attainment capacity of 15±2°C for storage of summer fruits and vegetables was designed. Developed system consisted of assembly of four peltier modules, liquid cooled evaporator, air cooled heat sink, DC fan, water as a coolant, etc. and have a capacity to removed 360W of refrigeration load. The system was powered using electric battery and operated at no load and with loading of fruit and vegetables. The results indicated that developed thermoelectric refrigeration system operated without loading reduces temperature inside the cooling chamber from 36.2°C to 15.4°C in 210 minutes, whereas, from 38.70°C to 15.10°C in 360 minutes when operated with load. The coefficient of performance (COP) of system was found to be 0.85. The storage study indicated that PLW of bitter gourd, okra, mango and papaya was significantly reduced (p<0.0001) to 11.51%, 10.99%, 12.29% and 19.17% respectively, compared to those stored at ambient storage condition. An overall colour change for crop was significantly reduced to 14.04, 11.46, 16.41 and 23.68 for bitter gourd, okra, mango and papaya respectively. The results of physiological quality of stored crop also indicated that no significant difference (p<0.0001) exist between thermoelectric refrigeration and vapour compression refrigeration system. The shelf life of crop was increased up to 7, 8, 10 and 12 days for bitter gourd, okra, mango and papaya respectively. So, thermoelectric refrigeration, being an eco-friendly and sustainable technology, useful for generating carbon credits along with cold chain management of perishable crops.