To maintain the lower storage temperature and high relative humidity condition is crucial to extend the shelf life of fresh agro produce. Conventional refrigeration system based cold storage system maintains such desired condition for storage of fresh agro produce but involves high initial investment (Rs. 5-7 lakhs/tonne) and operating cost (up to 4 Kw-h energy requirement per tonne). As an alternative low cost, low energy indirect-direct evaporative cooling based storage system suitable for on-farm storage of fresh horticultural commodities has been developed. The storage unit has 1 tonne storage capacity and especially constructed using hollow bricks.
The inner wall of the storage structure has been insulated using specially designed PU foam and polycarbonate sheet based panelling keeping in view of minimization of heat loss and maintain the inside storage temperature. The matching capacity of direct and indirect evaporative cooling units has been designed and integrated. The indirect evaporative cooling (IDEC) unit consists of specially designed cross flow type plate and fin heat exchanger while the direct evaporative cooling (DEC) unit consists of an experimentally standardized cooling pad media.
These developed indirect evaporative cooling (IDEC) and direct evaporative cooling (DEC) integrated with the storage unit in such way that any one of the system may operate individually or may operate in hybrid mode as per the requirement of inside storage and environmental conditions. The performance parameters have been optimized for individual as well as hybrid operation of the system.
At the optimized operating conditions, the hybrid system fetch the highest cooling efficiency and cooling capacity with the temperature drop in the tune of 18.3°C from the peak summer ambient temperature of 40°C. The shelf life of fresh cucumber in the developed system enhanced up to 14 days over 3 days at ambient conditions with non-significant change in quality attributes.
This allows a sufficient buffer period for farmers and stakeholders for marketing of quality product to maintain the supply chain. The cost of developed storage system is about 3 lakhs and energy consumption of 1 Kw-h/t. Overall this technology is boon to the farmers and other stackholders.
(Source: ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal)
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