Impact of Building and Refrigeration System’s Parameters on Energy Consumption in the Potato Cold Storage

Abstract

Cold storage is a key element for long term preservation and distribution of perishable items. A large quantity of perishable items is gone wastage every year due to inadequate storage facility in the countries like India. Their energy extensive refrigeration process makes them accountable for substantial share of total energy consumption in the country. Moreover, energy inefficiency in operation and building designs in the existing cold storages inhibits expansion of desirable storage facility. This study aims to explore the building and refrigeration system's parameters that may influence the overall energy consumption in the storage. A survey was conducted in ten Indian potato cold storages and detail data of their energy consumption, building construction and refrigeration systems was collected. The collected data was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Trend analysis technique was also used to establish relationship between specific energy consumption and identified parameters. Results show that the utilization factor has major impact on the energy consumption in the storages and the existing cold storages are not utilizing their storage capacities fully. Comparatively higher energy consumption was observed in the cold storages that have low utilization factors. Building aspect ratios and effective U-value of the building envelop were also identified one of the crucial parameters that can play a major role to improve the energy performance of the cold storages. As expected, a negligible variation in the specific energy consumption of the storages with the specific installed refrigeration systems and AHUs was observed.

Life Cycle Saving Analysis of an Earth-Coupled Building without and with Roof Evaporative Cooling for Energy Efficient Potato Storage Application

“…The dimensions of the cold storage room, which were previously optimized for minimum solar gain, were 24.1 m × 24.1 m × 12.0 m [13] (Figure 1), as also validated by the results of the field survey data [1]. The storage room was assumed to be optimally oriented at 31, 20, and 25 degrees with respect to true south in Indore, Jodhpur, and Chennai, respectively [14]. Openings (i.e., doors) are required in the building for loading/unloading and movements for maintenance and operational purposes.…”

“…A single-room storage building, having a storage capacity of 2350 tons, was considered in this study. The dimensions of the cold storage room, which were previously optimized for minimum solar gain, were 24.1 m × 24.1 m × 12.0 m [13] (Figure 1), as also validated by the results of the field survey data [1]. The storage room was assumed to be optimally oriented at 31, 20, and 25 degrees with respect to true south in Indore, Jodhpur, and Chennai, respectively [14].…”

“…The graphical illustration of the roof, walls and floor used in this study is shown in Figure 2. The detail of the building construction characteristics identified during the survey were presented in our previous study [1]. The thermo-physical properties of the construction materials are listed in Table 1.…”

“…All other terms on the R.H.S. of the equation have the same meaning as in Equation (1). The Q' values in the denominator of the first, second, and fourth terms on the R.H.S.…”

“…The preservation process in cold storage consumes a massive amount of energy that is mainly dependent on the grid or other fossil-fuel driven power generators (e.g., diesel generator). The specific energy consumption in Indian cold storage has been measured to be between 9 and 26 kWh/ton/year [1]. Moreover, high post-harvest losses, especially in perishable products, due to unfavorable climatic conditions and increasing demand for fresh products throughout the year, have created a large demand for highenergy-consuming refrigerated cold storages [2].…”