Cold
comfort
Milind
V Rane, IIT Bombay delves into the advantages of using a truck exhaust
fired refrigeration system to simplify the supply chain process and
improve its efficiency
Refrigerated
transport is an important link in the cold chain. It is needed to effectively
tap the potential of our agricultural and seafood sector. Every year,
Rs 50,000 crore worth of food produce is wasted in India because of
lack of proper infrastructure for storage and transportation under controlled
conditions.These range from physical damage and vermin infestation to
improper temperature, humidity and air-flow. New markets including the
export markets can be effectively tapped using cost effective Truck
Exhaust Fired Refrigeration System (TRS) developed at the Heat Pump
Laboratory (HPL), IIT Bombay. A modular 1.5 TR TRS is capable of providing
cooling in the range of -20-00 C has been developed. Activated carbon
(AC)/ammonia (NH3) is the adsorbent/refrigerant pair in this modular
adsorption refrigeration system. This heat activated refrigeration system,
can serve as an important means of using waste heat to provide for the
cooling needs in various circumstances. The TRS has very few moving
parts, which is the key to its rugged design. The major advantage of
this adsorption refrigeration technology is a lower initial and operating
cost as compared to a conventional engine coupled vapour compression
system. Due to a lower initial, installation and operating costs, TRS
has the lowest life cycle cost compared to any existing technology.
This environment friendly system does not contribute to global warming
or ozone depletion problems.
Logistics of the system
Novel proprietary adsorption modules (Rane and Agarwal,
2002b; Rane et al., 2003) are used in the TRS developed at the Heat
Pump Laboratory, IIT Bombay. This coupled with switchable heat pipes
(Rane and Agarwal, 2002a), wire fin heat exchangers and eutectic storage
tank make the TRS as shown in Figure 1, a very compact, low cost and
reliable exhaust heat fired mobile refrigeration system. There are specific
advantages of using this design. The main features of this design are
listed below.
• Simple design – packaged system includes novel exhaust heat
recovery unit
• Low maintenance costs – refrigerant compressor and requirement
of a dedicated engine drive is eliminated
• Very low operating costs – use of exhaust heat reduces fuel
consumption by about 0.66 l/h. Ton of Refrigeration (TR)
• Cooling capacity – exhaust from a 110 HP truck engine can
offer more than 1.5 TR cooling under normal operating conditions
• High heat and mass transfer coefficients –
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