Cold Chain and Energy Management
Cold Chain and Energy Management
Cold Chain and Energy Management
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This research reviews the cold chain system technology particularly in the
food and agro industries. The Food cold chain and the components of the
system are reviewed. Components such as Post harvest handling,
Refrigerated transport, Refrigerated storage, Controlled Atmosphere storage,
frozen products processes, products distribution and retails refrigeration
processes are discussed. Current cold chain management among the stake
holders as it impacts on energy consumption, suggestion of efficient energy
practices and ways in which substantial energy can be saved or reduced on
the cold chain facilities are discussed and highlighted in this study.
Cold chain, Cold chain Components, Food Refrigeration/freezing,
Energy efficiency, Energy Management.
The Cold Chain System ensures safer and better quality of food or any agro
product. Meat for example, is a good medium for bacteria growth. The Cold
Chain System will keep the meat at the proper controlled cold temperature at
all the stages from production to distribution to consumers. This effectively
controls the growth of spoilage and food poisoning bacteria as well as slowing
down quality deterioration from chemical changes in the meat.
Refrigeration and freezing of food products are the two vital processes
involved in the cold chain system. Refrigeration is the process of removing
heat from a product through the refrigerant and passing the heat to the
immediate surrounding, leaving the product with a very low temperature.
Freezing also has to do with maintenance of low temperature. It involves a
phase change from Liquid to solid and usually below the freezing temperature
of the product. Water has a freezing temperature of 0 deg C . Monitoring and
control of temperatures of product is very crucial in the cold chain system . The
WHO¶s vaccine are generally classified within the temperature range of
2degC to 8degC with a variation of + or -3degC. If the standard temperature is
deviated from, then the product will start to get deteriorated and eventually get
spoilt.
The initial cooling, processing, and cold storage of fresh food, fruits and
vegetables sare among the most energy intensive segments of the food
industry. Significant levels of refrigeration and heating are needed to slow
down spoilage and maintain preharvest freshness and flavor of ripe fruit and
vegetables. Cooling the fresh fruit and vegetabl es before processing removes
the ³field´ heat from the freshly harvested products in time to inhibit decay and
help maintain moisture content, sugars, vitamins, and starches. Blanching of
fresh vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, and cauliflower helps maintain
product texture and color. The quick freezing of processed fresh fruit and
vegetables helps maintain the quality, nutritional value, and physical
properties for extended periods. The refrigeration systems, especially for the
fruit processors, usually operate at their heaviest load during the summer
daytime hours when electrical costs and outdoor temperatures are the
highest.
According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the U.S. had 235 frozen fruit, juice,
and vegetable processing facilities in 2002 that employed approximately
38,000 workers. Processing fresh fruit and vegetables is a highly energy
intensive industry. In 2002 the 235 processing plants consumed an estimated
2,925,970,000 kWh of electricity, and had energy costs totaling more than
$276 million (includes electricity and other fuels). In 2002 the total value of
shipments was more than $9 billion. The state of California has 48 frozen
fruits and vegetable processing plants that consume approximately 329.8
million kWh of electricity and 38. 7 million thermos of natural gas per year
(Sullivan, 1999).
Evaluation of cold chain system was done in a time bound study during
August and September months of 1992 in two districts of Haryana as there
were frequent breakdowns of inclined refrigerators during the previous year.
The study revealed that defective stabilizers and electricity plugs and sockets
were the reason of breakdown in many cases. Temperature maintenance and
functioning of deep freezers was satisfactory. Retrospective analysis showed
that the polio vaccine samples picked up during 1990 -92 were found to be
satisfactory by CRI, Kasauli. Use of two ice-pick carrier and thermos flasks
was associated with poor temperature maintenance. Seven vaccine carriers
out of 25 examined had cracked wall lining. Lids of carriers were also not kept
tight during vaccination sessions. Response lag of the health workers and
medical officers in case of breakdowns was delayed. A one day refresher
course exclusively on cold chain maintenance at community hea lth centre
level was recommended.
Apr 1, 2000 - Miniaturized electronic casing for monitoring the cold chain for
perishable products was developed: Patented by Bruno Guy De La Forterie
on April 1, 2000 His abstract states that an electronic device for monitoring
the cold chain of a product, which measures the temperature, carries out the
product of the measured temperature by a determined coefficient depending
on the temperature, successively adds the products and records the running
total obtained, and which includes a visual control.
Due to lack of cold chain systems and good logistics at various sea ports in
Ghana, West Africa, exports are mainly via air, which limits the volume of
exports and increases the transportation cost as transport by air is expensive.
In anticipation of the cold chain facilities, the Trade and Investment Program
for a Competitive Export Economy (TIPCEE) project assisted mango
producers to conduct trial sea shipments in July 2005. The result of this trial
was a success and the implementation of the cold chain system encouraged
more exportation of mangoes in Ghana.[5] The Terms of Reference of the
new IIR Working Party (WP) ³Energy labelling in the cold chain´ was approved
in Italy. The main objective of this WP ± chaired by Prof. Giovanni Cortella,
Italy, and involving Commissions D1 and D2 ± is to investigate effective
energy labelling schemes for refrigerated storage, display and transport in the
cold chain, and promote their diffusion. This WP will include 2 subgroups
covering refrigerated storage (cold rooms, display cabinets, etc.) and
refrigerated transport (land, marine, air) respective ly. These two subgroups
acted separately but with synergy, sharing expertise, information and
initiatives.
The USAID wrote in its report of May 2009 that agriculture in A zerbaijan
provides 39.3% of all employment or 2.3 million workers (as compared to
approximately 1% or 58,000 workers from oil). Azerbaijan¶s major cash crops
are grapes, cotton, tobacco, citrus fruits, and vegetables and all of these but
cotton and tobacco are dependent upon an effective cold chain if they are to
be economically viable and sustainable. Cold chain and warehousing is a
critical value driver in Food and agriculture, although until recently not
appreciated as such by many Food and agricultural stakeholders.
Warehousing and cold storage are the major elements in the food/agro
harvest, preservation and distribution system and should be considered in
synergy, but rather as a part of a system referred to as the ³Cold Chain.´
Warehousing and cold storage facilities are typically ³private´ or ³public,´ or a
combination of both. This definition is not related to the source of ownership,
i.e., by individuals or by government. Rather, ³private´ facilities only store
product owned by the facility operator. This may be product originally
produced by the operator or product acquired by the operator and held in
storage in other to sell when the price is relatively high . ³Public´ facilities are
those which provide storage services to others for a fee.
Following the trend of awareness of the cold chain system and its
implications, the future of the food /agro industry is secured. There will be
more cold chain system implemented to cater for the needs of this sector of
the economy. Food deteriorations and spoilage will be minimised o r reduced
to the barest minimum. Energy efficient freezer and refrigerating equipment
that can consume less than half of what is being consumed now will be
designed to properly manage energy consumption . Measures of minimising or
reducing energy consumed by the cold chain systems and facilities are also
going to taken as very vital in other to conserve the total energy produced by
the nations.
The term ³cold chain´ and the components thereof, refer to steps from harvest
of food/agro products to consumption that extends the natural shelf life of the
product by controlling temperature. Typical components of a cold chain may
include post-harvest handling, refrigerated transport, refrigerated storage,
controlled atmosphere storage ( CA), chilled or frozen processing, cold storage
holding and/or distribution, retail refrigeration, institutional refrigeration, and
home refrigeration. All foods begin to deteriorate or lose quality upon harvest
whether it is meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, fruit or vegetable. Most also
continue to produce heat and in some cases ripening gases, even after
harvest. Removing the heat from these products and maintaining product
temperature and/or storage atmospheric composition, by chilling, refrigerated
storage, CA storage or freezing reduces the rate of deterioration and extends
the shelf-life of the product. In addition to protecting quality, application of the
appropriate cold chain components provides flexibility by making it possible to
market products at the optimum time. It is also imperative to mention that
energy is consumed during these processes.
Temperatures maintained in cold chain storage facilities may be divided into
³refrigerated´ and ³frozen´ categories. Refrigerated temperatures are typically
those above 0 oC and frozen temperatures those lower than 0 oC. Typically
fresh meat, poultry, seafood, milk, flowers, fruits and vegetables are held at
4oC while some products such as strawberries, cucumbers and tomatoes are
held at higher temperatures due to sensitivity issues. Frozen storage
temperatures normally include two common categories, -18oC and ± 29oC; the
latter often referred to as ³ice cream temperature.´ Lower temperatures may
be specified for specific products such as sashimi grade tuna -62oC but are
not common. Temperatures used to freeze products are normally lower than
storage temperatures.
The success story of industries that depend on the cold chain comes down to
knowing how to ship a product with temperature control adapted to the
shipping instances. Different products require different temperature level
maintenance to ensure their integrity throughout the travel process. For
instance, the most common temperature standards are "banana" (13 °C),
"chill" (2 °C), "frozen" (-18 °C) and "deep frozen" (-29 °C). Maintaining this
temperature is very important to the integrity of a shipment along the supply
chain. Any divergence can result in unrecoverable and expensive damage; a
product can simply lose any market or useful value. Being able to ensure that
a shipment will remain within a temperature range for an extended period of
time depends on the type of container that is used and the r efrigeration
method. Factors such as duration of transit, the size of the shipment and the
ambient or outside temperatures experienced are important in deciding what
type of packaging is required. These can vary from small insulated boxes that
require dry ice or gel packs, rolling containers, to a 53 footer reefer which has
its own powered refrigeration unit. The major cold chain technologies include:
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Solid carbon dioxide is about -80°C and is able to keep a shipment frozen for
a long period of time. It is used particularly for the shipping of
pharmaceuticals, dangerous goods and foodstuffs. Dry ice does not melt,
instead it sublimes when it¶s in contact with air.
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The eutectic plate principle is close to gel packs. Instead, plates are filled with
a liquid and can be reused again and again .
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A specially cold liquid, of about -196°C, used to keep packages frozen over a
long period of time. Mainly used to transport biological cargo such as tissues
and organs. It is classified as a hazardous substance for the purpose of
transportation.
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Insulated pieces that are placed over or around freight to act as buffer in
temperature variations and to maintain the temperature relatively constant.
Thus, frozen freight will remain frozen for a longer time period, often long
enough not to justify the usage of more expensive refrigeration devices. Quilts
can also be used to keep temperature sensitive freight at room temperature
while outside conditions can substantially vary (e.g. d uring the summer or the
winter).
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The generic name for a temperature controlled container, which can be a van,
small truck, a semi or a standard ISO container. These containers, which are
insulated, are specially designed to allow temperature controlled air circulation
maintained by an attached and independent refrigeration plant. The term
increasingly applies to refrigerated forty foot ISO containers. Perishable or
temperature sensitive items are carried in refrigerated containers (called
"reefers"), that account for a growing share of the refrigerated cargo being
transported around the world. In 1980, 33% of the refrigerated transport
capacity in maritime shipping was containerized, this percentage rapidly
climbed to 47% in 1990, 68% in 2000 and 90% in 2010. All reefers are
painted white to increase the albedo (percentage of the incident light being
reflected; high albedo implies less solar energy absorbed by the surface) with
the dominant size being 40 high -cube footers. For instance a low albedo
container can have its internal temperature incr ease to 50 °C when the
external temperature reaches 25 °C on a sunny day while a high albedo
container see its internal temperature increase to only 38 °C under the same
conditions.
Degree Celcius
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Automated truck loading systems are used mostly for shuttle transport where
loading time is very essential. Conventional truck loading or unloading with
fork lift trucks takes on average 30 minutes. With automated systems, the
loading time can be reduced to just about 2 minutes. Due to unnecessary long
truck waiting time at the dock and open gates the interface between trailer
and dock is most times the reason for energy loss. Moreso, it is often the
weakest link in a smooth running cold chain system.
Inflatable shelters are installed at the dock to prevent circulation of open air
when the trailer is docked to the loading or unloading system. In addition, an
automatic bridge swings down closing the gap between the trailer and the
docking system. A special chill proof enclosure including a control unit
enables the truck driver to control the loading and unloading process without
being exposed to the freezing environment. Special wiring devise is used to
maintain flexibility in low temperatures up t o -25° Celsius.
The reduction of cooling loss and the heavily reduced loading and truck
waiting time contributes to an increase in efficiency. Therefore, it is not only
are energy costs that are reduced through substantial savings of energy, it
also increases profits for the customer.
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Processing generally involves the cooling and freezing of Food and Agro
products; the pre-cooling of agricultural products such as fruits and
vegetables; production of all kinds of quick -frozen foods and dairy products at
low temperature and so on. The cooling processing also includes natural
cooling in a cold room, forced air cooling, vacuum cooling, and cryogenic
cooling. Freezing is an effective method for preserving the physical and
nutritional value of food for extended periods of time. A significant portion of a
plant¶s energy is used to reduce the fruit and vegetables temperature below
freezing. Air is cooled by an evaporator at -40 to -25 °F and blown by fans to
pull heat from the product. Two types of air-blast freezers are used in this
industry: stationary freezing tunnels (a.k.a. blast tunnels) and belt freezers
(e.g. spiral freezers).
Blast tunnels are batch freezing process, while belt freezers are a continuous
freezing process. The ammonia refrigeration necessary to produce freezing
air at -40 to -25 °F is the major user of energy in the process, but the fan
power needed to push the air past the product at relatively high velocities is
also a significant consumer of energy.
Freezing involves contact (plate) freezing, blasting freezing, and cryogenic
freezing. This stage of freezing is particularly energy intensive, and it
accounts for a substantial portion of the energy consumed in the production of
frozen foods. There is a wide variation in energy consumed during the
freezing process and its ranging from 229.6 to 935.7 kWh, equivalent to per
ton of production. Therefore, this energy can be reduced or minimised during
freezing operation if freezing equipment are optimised. Products should be
arranged in a way that uniform airflow is permitted. This will in turn reduce
freezing time and as such, energy is optimised and utilised efficiently.
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There is very little published data on the energy consumption of cold storage
systems for foods. A detailed study was carried out of three UK cold stores
and data obtained from other published sources.
The first section of this report compares all the available energy consumption
data and the following sections look in detail at the three stores investigated.
In the DX stores huge savings could have been achieved if operation of cold
storage facilities were optimised in terms of heat loads on the rooms and the
operation of the refrigeration system. Many improvements were low in cost
(improved door protection, defrost optimisation and repairs) and most other
improvements were cost effective and had short pay back times. Cold store 2
was the most efficient store in terms of heat removed by the refrigeration
system and this was due to it being operated by a low -pressure receiver
system. However, the plant used more energy per m3 and this was partly due
to it being a small store and also to the way the store was operated with high
transmission, infiltration a nd fixed heat loads. Improvements to its operation
could be made by fitting better door protection and reducing fixed loads.
Substantial improvements could be made to all cold stores 1 and 3 by fitting
better door protection and pedestrian doors, installin g liquid pressure
amplification pumps and suction liquid heat exchangers and by optimising
defrost settings.
Energy can be optimised and used efficiently if all the improvements, checks
and precautions mentioned above are strictly implemented in all cold stores.
This can as well be related to good management of energy.
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Retail refrigeration includes the process involving the cool/cold storage and
sale of foodstuffs in the cold chain system. It is a process that makes the
product available to the final consumers. In modern cold chain foods are
displayed using cool/cold display cabinets, display refrigerators and so on, at
the stores.
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Energy use can be reduced by protecting the cooler from external heat gain
and operating it at maximum capacity. Research has shown that over one-
third of the heat input to a hydrocooler is infiltration of warm air, outside heat
conducted through walls, and cooling the water reservoir when the cooler is
started up each day. Infiltration heat can be reduced by installing plastic flap
doors and by minimizing the distance between the shower pan and the top of
the product. Installing insulation and shading the cooler or painting it a light
colour reduces heat conduction through the walls. Using a smaller water
reservoir lowers the amount of start-up cooling required by the cooler. Placing
the cooler in a refrigerated building reduces all forms of external heat gain and
start-up losses. Energy use per unit cooled associated with pumps and with
removing conduction and infiltration heat can also be reduced by operating
the cooler at maximum capacity. These energy uses are dependent on the
amount of time the cooler is in operation, not on the amount of product
cooled. Energy use per unit mass of product cooled is reduced when more
quantity of product are cooled per hour.
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Energy use can be minimised or reduced by all of the techniques mentioned
above for storage facilities, but evaporator fan energy use is the most
significant. In addition to their own energy consumption, evaporator fans
contribute over one-third (and in some coolers, more than half) of the heat
that must be removed from an average forced air cooler. Fan energy use can
be minimized by turning fans off when not needed, installing evaporator coils
with a minimum airflow resistance, using cartons with adequate venting area,
and arranging pallets on the cooler to reduce airflow resistance. Variable
frequency controls are commonly used to slow fans at the end of a cooling
cycle. If all of the above are adhered to , heat input is reduced without
significantly slowing the cooling process.
A lot of cooling facilities are billed for electricity not only the amount of energy
consumed but the time of the day it is consumed. Electricity is usually more
expensive during the afternoon hours, which is usually when most electricity is
needed for cooling operations. Energy demand and consumption can be
shifted to hours when electricity is cheaper. Slowing the cooling rate and then
shifting the cooling work to the night is the least expensive option for forced
air coolers. This can only be used if there is excess cooling capacity available
at night and if the products can withstand some delay in cooling. Electric lift
trucks reduce refrigeration demand because they produce less heat than fuel
lifts.
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1. www.ava.gov.sg/foodsector/foodsafetyeducation/food+facts/coldchains
ystem/index.htm
2. Energy Saving Opportunties in food µCold Chain System´ , Z. Huan
3. Evaluation of Cold Chain System in rural area of Haryana, Arun
aggarwal; Amar Jeet singh, 1992.
4. www.book.google.com/books/id
5. IIR working party on ³energy labelling in the cold chain¶, May, 2008
6. www.freshpalza.com/2006/21feb/2-gh-mangoexport.htm
7. Cold chain standards conference; Pei Zhiyong; July, 2010
8. USAID ³cold chain and storage action plans, May, 2009
9. Energy efficient truck loading and unloading for cold chain logistics,
Jasper Van den driest, February, 2010
10. Cold storage of food ³ review of available on energy consumption and
energy saving options, Judith Evans, 2006
11. Energy efficiency opportunities in Fresh fruit and vegetable
processing/cold storage facilities, Brian Hacket, Sandra chow and
Ahmad R. Ganji, July, 2006.
12. A System Dynamic Model to Support Cold Chain Management in Food
Supply Chain, Francesca Oliva, Roberto Revetria, July, 2008
13. Energy Conservation in cold Storage, ¶´Perishable Handling quarterly
issue No 105´, Jim Thompson February, 2001