Heat Transfer Parameterization towards Enhancing Shelf Life of Vegetables in Low Cost Cold Chain with FACCC

Abstract

India is the second-largest vegetable producing country after China. It is observed that there is a huge loss of vegetables due to the lack of low-cost cold chain for its storage & transportation after harvesting from agriculture land to vegetable market. The shelf life of these vegetables is less due to poor temperature control during transportation and storage. If vegetables are not maintained at their prudent temperature, then they will lose their potency, which will lead to enormous economic loss. Therefore, it is observed that temperature control of vegetables and their heat transfer characteristics are a major factor to maintain potency and increase their shelf life. This paper proposed a low-cost design of FACCC for temperature control of vegetables during transportation and storage with the help of Chillers. Further, the effect of air velocity on heat transfer rate and Nusselt number of various vegetables was evaluated to predict the performance of FACCC for enhancing the shelf life of vegetables.Thermophysical characteristics of these vegetables have been calculated at different air flow rate with the help of Reynolds analogy as a function of Stanton Number, Reynold’s Number and Prandtl Number.The airflow rate was maintained between 0.2065 m/s - 0.413 m/s inside FACCC. Experimental study reveals that the average Nusselt Number of these vegetables lies in the range of 57.9 - 115.74 and the range of Surface heat transfer coefficient is 54.48-108.96 W/m2K. Validation of FACCC performance has been done by comparing the heat transfer rate and Nusselt number from published literature. These results are obtained by temperature control of vegetables by varying air flow rate through four fans fitted inside FACCC. It results in higher shelf life due to favourable maintenance of thermodynamic parameters such as surface heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number, Reynold number and preferable temperature for specific commodities.Thus, the proposed FACCC model can be an effective tool for enhancement of low-cost cold chain for vegetables in future.