Experimental Analysis of Cold Chamber with Phase Change Materials for Agriculture Products

Fruits and vegetables are very healthy products with considerable value to people’s health. They are also very perishable and are therefore readily spoiled, resulting in a decrease in quality and food waste. Over the years, cool chain solutions have been used to decrease the loss of quality of crops and fruits from the food supply chain. Nevertheless, high losses (50%) continue to occur when these fresh agricultural products are packaged, pre-cooled and distributed and maintained. Storage of these products needs to maintain chambers with stabled temperature. The first research describes the application, in comparison with the standard boundary, of the PCM layer on the outside of a refrigerated cold chamber to lower and change the cooling energy. To this objective, a numerical and experimental study methodology was used to measure the suggested technology. To validate the mathematical model, calculation results have been compared with experimental values. The implementation of a PCM air heat exchanger in the cold room evaporator has been experimentally investigated for refrigerated storage. Nano-based PCMs like 40% tetra n-butyl ammonium bromide + 2% borax, 45% tetra n-butyl ammonium bromide + 1% borax and RT21-paraffin used in the investigation to check the variation in cold chamber.