The Application of Barocaloric Solid-State Cooling in the Cold Food Chain for Carbon Footprint Reduction

Abstract

In this paper, the application of solid-state cooling based on the barocaloric effect in the cold food supply chain is investigated. Barocaloric solid-state technology is applied to the final links of the cold food supply chain regarding the steps of retail and domestic conservation. In this context, effective barocaloric cooling entails the refrigeration of food at 5 °C (273 K) and as such is a promising cooling technology due to its energy efficiency and environmental friendliness. The categories of food involved in this investigation are meat and fresh food products like soft cheese, yogurt, and milk. The energy performance of the barocaloric system is analyzed and compared with a commercial vapor compression refrigerator of a similar size, both operating using R600a under the same working conditions. Based on the results of this comparison, it is concluded that barocaloric cooling is a favorable technology for application in the final links of the cold food supply chain if the system operates in an ABR cycle at frequencies between 1.25 and 1.50 Hz with a regenerator comprising acetoxy silicone rubber as the solid-state refrigerant and a 50%EG–50% water mixture as the heat transfer fluid flowing at an optimal velocity of 0.15 m s−1. Thus, an appropriate tradeoff between the temperature span, cooling power, and coefficient of performance is guaranteed. Under these conditions, the barocaloric system outperforms the domestic vapor compression cooler operating using R600a.

Understanding variations of thermal hysteresis in barocaloric plastic crystal neopentyl glycol using correlative microscopy and calorimetry

“…R134a) and an advantage of PC BC materials is that they are less volatile and do not have the high global warming potential of traditional refrigerants. This finding was a significant step towards the implementation of solid BC materials as technologically relevant refrigerants for heating and cooling applications [7][8][9]. In PCs, the BC effect arises from the entropy change associated with the ordering of molecules at the FOPT, which can be driven by pressure [10].…”

Advances in Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow

“…However, if the applied field is the result of hydrostatic pressure, it is referred to as the barocaloric effect [25,26]. Cirillo et al [27] conducted a study on the application of barocaloric solid-state technology to the cold food supply chain. The authors examined the energy efficiency of a barocaloric cooling system designed to function as a refrigeration machine for cold products.…”

“…This analysis was carried out for incompressible laminar flow using the Navier-Stokes equations and the energy equation in 2D form, and the set of equations was solved using the finite element method. The authors concluded that, for a liquid velocity greater than 0.06 m/s, the barocaloric system outperforms the vapour compression system in terms of cooling power [27].…”