Cooling and cool rooms use a great deal of energy; together with irrigation pumps, cooling accounts for 66% of greenhouse gas emissions from vegetable farms. Of course, the industry product has to get the market, retailer or processor in good condition. This generally means cooling products as quickly as possible and storing at the optimum [...]
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There are a number of ways of reducing energy requirements of cool stores. Perhaps the most important is regularly checking the operating temperature of the room and considering whether this is the most cost-effective temperature for storage. For example, although the optimum storage temperature for many (non-chilling sensitive) products is close to zero, if they [...]
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Using CO2 as a refrigerant gas can reduce energy consumption and increase cool room efficiency. Refrigeration plant is generally a mature technology. Several refrigerants are in common use including R22 (being phased out due to its ozone depleting potential), R134a and R404a. Although the refrigerants R134a and R404a do not significantly affect ozone depletion they have [...]
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