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Paper Title : Development and Performance Evaluation of an Evaporative Charcoal Cooler for the Conservation of Biological Material

ISSN : 2395-1303
Year of Publication : 2022
10.5281/zenodo.7145485

Authors: Djoukeng Henri Grisseur, Tetu Ndaji Nathaniel, Tangka Julius Kewir

         


Abstract
In tropical regions, post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables caused by high temperatures is a major challenge in agriculture, especially in places with poor or no power supply for the functioning of very efficient cooling systems. Vegetables and fruits are highly perishable due to their high moisture and heat content. Given their nutritive and economic importance, they need to be conserved fresh, though famers in rural zones can’t afford sophisticated cooling technology. This study presents an evaporative charcoal cooler as an alternative cooling technology to refrigeration that could be used to store fresh fruits and vegetables. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) was chosen to be the main vegetable to be freshly conserved; a survey revealed that fruit firmness was the main attribute used by tomatoes retailers to appraise tomato quality, followed by juicy secretions from the fruit, in the main market of Dschang. The charcoal cooler was constructed with local materials to have a storage capacity of 0.33m³ for fruits and vegetables. The charcoal evaporative cooler was able to extend the shelf life of stored tomatoes by 6 days, as it maintained at least an average temperature drop of 4.80℃ and 3.76℃ with a corresponding increase in relative humidity of 22.61% and 18.17% in the dry and wet seasons respectively compared to ambient condition. This resulted to a maintained storage temperature and relative humidity of 20.85℃ and 87.94% against an ambient temperature and relative humidity of 24.57℃ and 69.33% respectively with an average cooling efficiency of 81.02%, making the stored fruit to lose 2.76% and 4.65% weight in the cooling room and ambient condition respectively.

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Keywords
— Temperature drop, Charcoal evaporative cooler, Cooling efficiency, Fruits and vegetables.