Cirillo, L.; Greco, A.; Masselli, C. The Application of Barocaloric Solid-State Cooling in the Cold Food Chain for Carbon Footprint Reduction. Energies2023, 16, 6436.
Cirillo, L.; Greco, A.; Masselli, C. The Application of Barocaloric Solid-State Cooling in the Cold Food Chain for Carbon Footprint Reduction. Energies 2023, 16, 6436.
Cirillo, L.; Greco, A.; Masselli, C. The Application of Barocaloric Solid-State Cooling in the Cold Food Chain for Carbon Footprint Reduction. Energies2023, 16, 6436.
Cirillo, L.; Greco, A.; Masselli, C. The Application of Barocaloric Solid-State Cooling in the Cold Food Chain for Carbon Footprint Reduction. Energies 2023, 16, 6436.
Abstract
In this paper the application of the solid-state cooling based on barocaloric effect in the cold food supply chain is investigated. Barocaloric solid-state technology is applied to the final chain links of the cold food supply chain, regarding the steps of retail and domestic conservation. In this context a barocaloric cooler with regard to food needing to be kept at 5°C (273 K), in order to operate with a promising cooling technology that result energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The categories of food interested in the investigation are meets and fresh food products like soft cheese, yogurt, milk. The energy performances of the barocaloric system have been carried out and compared with a commercial vapor compression refrigerator of a similar size, both operating with R600a under the same working conditions. Basing on the following consideration one can conclude that barocaloric cooling is a favourable technology to be employed in the last link chains of the cold food supply chain if the system operates in ABR cycle at frequencies between 1.25 and 1.50 Hz with a regenerator made of acetoxy silicone rubber as solid-state refrigerant and 50%EG-50%water mixture as heat transfer fluid flowing at the optimal velocity of 0.15 m s-1 that guarantees an appropriate trade-off between the temperature span, the cooling power and the coefficient of performances. Under these conditions the barocaloric system overperforms the domestic vapor compression cooler operating with R600a.
Copyright:
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