Design, development and evaluation of a small scale hydro-cooler.
Ghuman B. S., Dhatt A. S.
Author Affiliation: Department of Punjab Horticultural Postharvest Technology Centre, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India.
Journal of Research, Punjab Agricultural University 39 : 513-520
Abstract : Precooling horticulture produce is the first essential component of the complete cold-chain. Hydro cooling of certain root crops, melons, mangoes and tomatoes is recommended by various researchers. A laboratory scale, shower type hydro-cooler to cool a batch of 50 kg of horticultural produce was designed, developed and evaluated. The hydro-cooler cooled 200 litres of water from 31.7 to 8.5°C in 1 h. The performance of hydro-cooler to pre-cool mangoes was evaluated. During 1 h hydro cooling of mangoes the pulp temperature of mangoes dropped from 31.5 to 14°C which is in the recommended storage range of 13-15°C. The energy requirement for hydro-cooling one batch was estimated to be 3.5 Kwh.