Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Implementation and Performance Evaluation of a Community-Scale Adobe Evaporative Cooling Chamber for Vegetable Preservation

Journal Article · · Buildings
 [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil)
  2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The construction of evaporative coolers in remote areas can increase the longevity of vegetables, improving food security and the local economy of small farmers in remote, impoverished communities without access to electricity. This work presents a 1:1 scale prototype of an 8 m3 (2.1 × 2.1 × 2.3 m) stabilized adobe evaporative cooler, with a design based on the appropriate technology framework, and it was built as a chamber using double adobe walls, filled with wet sand, to induce evaporative cooling. Furthermore, the paper presents the prototype’s performance evaluation. The tests were carried out in the dry and wet states, with different volumes of water. The results show good performance compared with other prototypes, although the optimum watering volume could not be determined because of the high climate variance (outside temperature and humidity) that prevented the repetition of the experiments in identical operating conditions. Stabilized adobe proved to be a good choice for use in the cooler, even when subject to moisture accumulation, indicating an estimated long lifetime for the cooler. The data obtained about the efficiency of evaporative cooling show that the cooler, as expected, has its best performance on the hottest and driest days, reducing the internal temperature (up to 13.24 °C) and managing to keep the internal humidity. The cost, efficiency, durability, and replicability make the proposed evaporative cooler a feasible solution for food preservation.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
2000275
Journal Information:
Buildings, Vol. 13, Issue 6; ISSN 2075-5309
Publisher:
MDPICopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (13)

Appropriate Postharvest Technologies for Small Scale Horticultural Farmers and Marketers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South asia - part 2. Field Trial Results and Identification of Research Needs for Selected Crops journal June 2012
A new zero energy cool chamber with a solar-driven adsorption refrigerator journal December 2014
Recycled High-Density Polyethylene and Rice Husk as a Wetted Pad in Evaporative Cooling System journal February 2011
Zero Energy Cool Chamber for Extending the Shelf-Life of Tomato and Eggplant journal January 2012
Experimental Analysis of Evaporative Cooling Water in Porous Clay Vessels Under Varying Ambient Conditions journal April 2021
Preservation of Postharvest Quality of Leafy Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) Vegetables Using Evaporative Cooling journal January 2017
Potential reduction in water consumption of greenhouse evaporative coolers in arid areas via earth-tube heat exchangers journal March 2021
Enhancing the shelf life of injera: design of an evaporative cooler clay chamber derived from local clay in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia journal January 2023
Intrinsic Evaporative Cooling by Hygroscopic Earth Materials journal August 2016
Evaluation of a new heat transfer and evaporative design for a zero energy storage structure journal August 2015
Dynamic optimization of inside temperature of Zero Energy Cool Chamber for storing fruits and vegetables using neural networks and genetic algorithms journal July 2013
Relationship Between Mass Loss and Fruit Quality of Sweet Orange at Two Different Storage Conditions journal January 2023
An experimental study of a novel dew point evaporative cooling system journal May 2010

Figures / Tables (20)

Figure 1(p. 3)figure Figure 1
Figure 2(p. 3)figure Figure 2
Figure 3(p. 6)figure Figure 3
Figure 4(p. 7)figure Figure 4
Figure 5(p. 7)figure Figure 5
Table 1(p. 8)table Table 1
Table 2(p. 8)table Table 2
Table 3(p. 9)table Table 3
Table 4(p. 9)table Table 4
Table 5(p. 9)table Table 5
Figure 6(p. 10)figure Figure 6
Figure 7(p. 10)figure Figure 7
Table 6(p. 10)table Table 6
Figure 10(p. 11)figure Figure 10
Figure 8(p. 11)figure Figure 8
Figure 9(p. 11)figure Figure 9
Figure 11(p. 12)figure Figure 11
Figure 12(p. 13)figure Figure 12
Table 7(p. 13)table Table 7
Table 8(p. 14)table Table 8

Similar Records

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
zero energy
food security
vegetable conservation
cooling
evaporation
zero hunger
technology
post-harvest facility
remote communities