A low‐cost storage for horticulture commodities for enhancing farmer's income: An overview on evaporative cooling

Abstract

India is one of the leading countries in the production of horticultural produces. Still, the lack of scientific knowledge, infrastructure, and nonexistence of proper storage facilities forces the farmers to sell their produce in the nearby market immediately after harvest.Although refrigeration and cold storage facilities are developing now to store the horticultural produce, they are not only energy-intensive but also require huge investment. The majority of farmers cannot afford these facilities even on a rental basis for their harvest.The metabolism of fresh horticultural commodities continues even after the harvest and the rate of deterioration rises because their maturation, senescence, and unfavorable atmospheric factors predominate, especially in tropical countries. A low-cost, energy-efficient, environmentally benign and made from the locally available material evaporative cooling chamber (ECC) may resolve some of these issues of on-farm storage. It is an efficient and cost-effective way to reduce the temperature and increase relative humidity inside the chamber. A lot of evaporative cooling structures were developed, but still, this simple technology did not make a dent in the production catchment rural areas. In this article, an attempt is made to review the basic principle, methods, factors that influence storage conditions of perishables, design consideration of different evaporative cooling systems, major limitations, challenges, and constraints of its low adoption. The recent developments for modifications and improvement in existing ECCs using the latest technological interventions with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things and their cost analysis are also highlighted.

Modeling and optimization of integrated earth air heat exchanger and direct evaporative cooling system using ANN and RSM approaches for preserving fruits and vegetables

“…Evaporative cooling (EC) is one of the most promising passive cooling techniques, which is affordable, energy-efficient, and can be made from locally available quality materials (Patel et al, 2022). Various models of EC systems have been developed, and efforts have been made to adopt them at the farmer level (Awafo et al, 2020;Kenghe et al, 2015;Mansuri et al, 2016;Mogaji & Fapetu, 2011;Ogbuagu et al, 2017;Sharma et al, 2017).…”

“…These cause significant losses to farmers as well as the country's economy. The aforesaid losses can be minimized by adopting appropriate pre‐cooling techniques and storage methods in the places where it is produced (lal Basediya et al, 2013; Patel et al, 2022).…”

Development and evaluation of earth air heat exchanger cum evaporative cool system as an energy‐efficient method for storage of tomatoes

“…Various types of evaporative coolers have been designed and evaluated successfully for the short‐term storage of fresh produce to enhance shelf life and preserve postharvest quality 6,8,15‐18 . Hence, the evaporative cooling system is considered feasible and appropriate for small‐scale farmers because it is a low‐cost and energy‐efficient cooling technique for the on‐farm storage of fresh produce and can be made from locally available materials 15,19,20 . However, the cooling achieved by the evaporative cooler depends on the surrounding ambient conditions and it is not suitable for all weather conditions, particularly in areas where the relative humidity (RH) is very high 12 .…”

“…6,8,[15][16][17][18] Hence, the evaporative cooling system is considered feasible and appropriate for small-scale farmers because it is a low-cost and energy-efficient cooling technique for the on-farm storage of fresh produce and can be made from locally available materials. 15,19,20 However, the cooling achieved by the evaporative cooler depends on the surrounding ambient conditions and it is not suitable for all weather conditions, particularly in areas where the relative humidity (RH) is very high. 12 Hence, a precooling unit such as an earth air heat exchanger can be coupled before the evaporative cooler to extend its use.…”