DEVELOPMENT AND COMPUTATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC ASSISTED EVAPORATIVE COOLING VEGETABLE VENDING CART
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Date
2021
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INDIRA GANDHI KRISHI VISHWAVIDYALYA RAIPUR (C.G.)
Abstract
Storage and transportation losses are one of the major causes in post harvest losses. Small scale peasants and vegetable vendors have difficulty in storing and preserving the quality of the harvested or purchased agricultural produce before it reaches in the hands of the consumers. Cost effective easy to handle and less maintenance requiring storage unit is needed for using in remote areas. Solar photovoltaic assisted evaporative cooling vegetable vending cart has been designed and developed in Swami Vivekanand College of Agriculture Engineering &
Technology, Raipur for storing and selling of agricultural produce in small scale for vegetable vendors.
The developed vegetable vending cart consists of cooling cabinet unit, water distribution system and power supply unit. The evaporative cooling cabinet comprises of honeycomb cellulose pad as cooling material and a suction fan. Power supply unit consists of 45 Ah battery, 125 W solar panel, and power inverter. Water distribution system comprises of water reservoir, distribution pipes and pump. When the pump is turned on the water is distributed to the cooling pad for wetting and suction fan draws in air to increase the cooling rate.
The performance of the cooling unit was analyzed based on the saturation efficiency under load and no load conditions and the physiochemical quality of the vegetables (tomato and bitter gourd) placed inside the cabinet and under ambient condition. The saturation efficiency of the cooling pad material cellulose is observed in March and August month. The efficiency is 90%, temperature and RH drop is 14ºC and 40%, respectively in March, and during August the efficiency was 86%, temperature and relative humidity drop was recorded as 7ºC and 30%, respectively. Physiochemical analysis is performed for tomato and bitter gourd and the parameters observed are physiological weight loss, total titratable acids, total soluble solids, pH, firmness and color. The tomatoes and bitter gourd placed inside the cabinet retained shelf life upto 19 and 9 days, respectively. The tomatoes and bitter gourd stored under ambient condition were found to be storable up to 10 and 6 days, respectively. The physiochemical changes of tomato and bitter gourd were observed to be much faster in ambient condition than in the cabinet. The results obtained highlights that there is significant difference between the ambient and cabinet condition and the developed vegetable vending cart is efficient in storing and transporting the vegetables. Saturation efficiency recorded indicates that cellulose serves as an efficient cooling pad material. Sensory evaluation of the samples placed inside the cooling cabinet and ambient condition yielded a result that the marketable qualities were sustained inside the cooling cabinet.
Description
DEVELOPMENT AND COMPUTATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC ASSISTED EVAPORATIVE COOLING VEGETABLE VENDING CART