Calculating quantities of ice gel for cooling of fresh-cut melon in temporary storage box during distribution

Abstract

Temperature reduction can be done by adding a cooling media, one of which is ice gel. The use of ice gel as a cooling medium should take notice of the load heat during distribution because the load of heat that is removed by ice gel is limited. The calculation of the required heat load that needed to be removed to determine the amount of ice gel required during distribution. The calculations include the heat load of the storage box, the heat load of the fruit, and the heat load of the fruit respiration. The temporary storage box is made of thermotec heat shield material and has 3 shelves. This study uses fresh-cut melon as a sample of stored fruit. The result of calculating the ice gel needed in the distribution and storage for the top shelf and middle shelf respectively as many as 3 ice gel and the bottom shelf is 2 of ice gel 0.496 grams to storage 22 fresh-cut melon-sized 60 grams.