Comparative performance of evaporative cool chambers using alternative materials for storage of fruits and vegetables
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Date
2010
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Publisher
CCSHAU
Abstract
The investigations were carried out to study the comparative performance of evaporative cool
chambers using alternative materials for storage of fruits and vegetables. Two evaporative cool
chambers were constructed with the help of baked bricks. One of the evaporative cool chamber was
filled with river bed sand whereas the other with rice husk ash. Temperature and relative humidty were
recorded inside and outside the evaporative cool chambers for round the year use. It was found that for
round the year average dry bulb temperature was 8.6ºC and 10.7ºC lower than ambient in evaporative
cool chamber with river bed sand and in rice husk ash, respectively and the average relative humidty
was by 53% and 57%, respectively higher than ambient. Low density polyethylene bags of thickenss
100 gauge (25 micron) with 1% perforation were also used in combination with these conditions for the
storage studies. A comparative study was made for the storage of different fruits and vegetables inside
the evaporative cool chambers and the ambient conditions and their physico-chemical parameters were
observed at regular interval of time. The average cooling efficiency for round the year for evaporative
cool chamber with rice husk was 14% higher than the evaporative cool chamber with river bed sand.
Thus, the shelf life of the fruits and vegetables kept in these chambers increased substantially. The
evaporative cool chambers extended the shelf life of fruits and vegetables by 2-3 times as compared to
ambient. The evpaoriative cool chamber with rice husk ash was found more effective to retain the
quality of fruits and vegetables. The evaporative cool chamber does not require mechanical or electrical
energy input and can be constructed with locally available materials with unskilled labour, so the fruits
and vegetables growers can use evaporative cool chamber with rice husk ash for short duration storage
of horticultural produce.
Description
Keywords
Storage, Fruits, Storage structures, Acidity, Vegetables, Fruit vegetables, Physical control, Crop residues, Rice, Cereal byproducts