Article Sidebar
Published:
Dec 29, 2016DOI:
10.4314/njt.v36i1.37Keywords:
Article Details
Copyright belongs to the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
The contents of the articles are the sole opinion of the author(s) and not of NIJOTECH.
NIJOTECH allows open access for distribution of the published articles in any media so long as whole (not part) of articles are distributed.
A copyright and statement of originality documents will need to be filled out clearly and signed prior to publication of an accepted article. The Copyright form can be downloaded from https://www.nijotech.com/downloads/COPYRIGHT%20FORM.pdf while the Statement of Originality is in Statement of Originality.pdf (nijotech.com)
For articles that were developed from funded research, a clear acknowledgement of such support should be mentioned in the article with relevant references. Authors are expected to provide complete information on the sponsorship and intellectual property rights of the article together with all exceptions.
It is forbidden to publish the same research report in more than one journal.
Main Article Content
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A COMPOSITE-PADDED EVAPORATIVE COOLING STORAGE BIN
Abstract
In tropical regions, postharvest losses of fruits and vegetables induced by high temperatures is a major challenge to agriculture, especially in places with poor or no electric power supply. The present study is on the comparative performance evaluation of a 92kg capacity storage bin for the preservation of fruits and vegetables, operating on the principle of evaporative cooling. A 24V DC, 0.37kW fan attached to the back of the cooler serves to blow in cooling air. The average temperature drop and saturation efficiency in the evaporative cooler during the no-load test were 5°C and 42%, respectively. The facility was able to sustain tomatoes, garden eggs and carrots stored in it for ten days. The weight losses at ambient temperature were found to be 70%, 30%and 45% for tomatoes, garden eggs and carrots, respectively; while those stored at cooler temperature were10%, 25%, and 40% for tomatoes, garden eggs and carrots respectively. The evaporative cooler performed best for storage of tomatoes.
