Author:

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Engineering, Chemical, Food Science & Technology, Engineering, Computational fluid dynamics, Convective transfer, Precooling, Cold chain, Operational cost, Cold sterilisation, CFD MODELING SYSTEM, AIR-FLOW, HORTICULTURAL PRODUCTS, HEAT-TRANSFER, MASS-TRANSFER, TRANSFER COEFFICIENTS, TRANSPORT PHENOMENA, FRESH FOODS, STORES, 0904 Chemical Engineering, 0908 Food Sciences, Food Science, 3006 Food sciences, 4004 Chemical engineering

Abstract:

The performance of an existing container for orange fruit and two new designs, stacked on a pallet, has been evaluated for forced-convective precooling using computational fluid dynamics. The focus was on the fruit cooling rate and the system energy consumption in relation to cooling conditions (airflow rate and cooling temperature). The new package designs both showed an improved cooling rate and cooling uniformity, although this improvement is to some extent dependent on the cooling system that is used, which should also be taken into account when evaluating package design. The energy required to maintain airflow through the containers during the precooling process was also less for the new containers due to their lower aerodynamic resistance. These new containers seem a cost-effective way for improving forced-convective precooling of orange fruit with respect to throughput, fruit quality and operational cost of the system. In this study, basic information on the containers was obtained to guide future cold-chain design decisions and changes to existing cooling protocols or cooling systems.