A low-energy storage container for food and agriculture products

• Main Authors: Francesco Barreca, Pasquale Praticò, Giuseppe Davide Cardinali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: PAGEPress Publications 2021-09-01
• Series: Journal of Agricultural Engineering
• Subjects: Agri-food; farm; phase change material; rural buildings; thermal energy.
• Online Access: https://www.agroengineering.org/index.php/jae/article/view/1174

In 2018, the food, beverages, and tobacco sectors within the EU-27 consumed approximately 27,500 ktoe of energy. The food facilities and the food production plants are responsible for a large part of this energy consumption. Current global strategies focus on energy conservation and natural environmental protection, ascribing a lot of importance to building-related analyses. Areas for food storage are essential within the food production chain, as the indoor thermal parameters determine the characteristics of the final products. In this paper, a low-energy storage container is proposed. The envelope of the container is made from sandwich panels with a polyurethane layer paired with two phase change material (PCM) layers. The container is designed to store perishable materials, such as extra virgin olive oil. A storage container prototype, equipped with a mini-split heating, ventilation, and air conditioning electric system, was built to analyse and assess the energy spent during its use. Moreover, the achievable yearly energy savings with respect to a container without the PCM layers was calculated. The results showed that the PCM layers improve the energy performance of the container at an indoor temperature of 20°C with an energy saving of about 27%, and at an indoor temperature of 17°C with an energy saving of over 22%.