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Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy based Portable

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 Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy
based Portable Micro-Cold Storage
Md. Anowar Hossain* and Shaon Talukdar

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology, Gazipur, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT
Due to the lack of cold storage facilities and the absence of on-grid power supply, preserving fish, as soon as
they are caught, is the main concern for the fishermen when they fish in the deep-sea areas of Bangladesh. To
address the aforementioned problem, a portable micro-cold storage is developed in this present work where
renewable energy i.e. solar energy is used to energize the refrigeration unit of the system as well as to charge
the batteries used for the nighttime or the daytime when sunshine is not available. To take the direct current
(DC) output directly from the photovoltaic (PV) panel, the conventional alternating current (AC) compressor
of a freezer is supplanted by a DC compressor. The major components of the system are solar PV panels, a
deep freezer, a DC compressor-based refrigeration unit and batteries. The power supplied from the PV panels
run the compressor and simultaneously charge the batteries through a charge controller. Experiments are
carried out to investigate the performance of the system with and without load conditions. The tests include
the performance analysis of the solar PV panel unit, the refrigeration system, and the back-up unit. The results
are found satisfactory for all the operating conditions and for all the units.

1. Introduction Renewable energy is already playing a vital role in

Energy crisis is one of the burning issues nowadays and
undoubtedly a challenge for the upcoming world due to
incessant industrial evolution, abrupt population growth,
and uncontrolled use of fossil fuels. Particularly, to meet
up the crisis of energy is the primary concern for the third
world countries. Likewise, as a highly dense developing
country, a major portion of the population of Bangladesh
live in rural area and more than 70% of them do not
get grid electricity on a regular basis. In some rural and
isolated areas, grid connection is yet to be available, and
even if it is available in some of the areas, electricity
failure occurs frequently at these inaccessible rustic
areas [1]. Nowadays, Bangladesh challenges various
difficulties and interference in the development sectors
due to insufficient supply of electricity and unsustainable
energy development plan [2-4]. By 2030, an estimated
generation capacity of 34,000 MW of electricity will be
required for Bangladesh to sustain its current economic
growth [3]. Available conventional energy sources in
Bangladesh, which ate coal, natural gas, oils, and so like
are not only cost effective but also limited. According to
Petro Bangla, the reserve of fossil fuels of Bangladesh
is sharply depleting and will be phased out within the
year of 2031 unless new feasible sources are available.
Therefore, to meet the relentlessly increasing energy
demand of Bangladesh, renewable energy, above the use
of conventional energy sources, is a convenient source to
utilize for the days to come.
the energy mix in many countries around the world.
According to International Energy Agency (IEA), the
prices for renewable technologies, particularly solar
and wind, persistently decline, making the renewable
energy progressively mainstream and competitive with
conventional energy sources. Solar energy taken from sun
using photovoltaic panels is the most used technology in
the world at present, which is cost effective, efficient and
existing in abundance. Fundamentally, it motivates the
idea of utilization of solar energy into electrical energy
and hence converting to thermal energy to meet the
cooling demand of the cold storage. Bharj and Kumar [5-
8] developed a hybrid cold storage project where both grid
and off grid power are used to run the system. They opted
PV panel based solar system for off grid power. When
the solar power is unavailable the system is designed to
take power from the grid. Their investigation revealed that
DC inverter-based vapor compression air conditioning
system is the most effective way for a solar powered cold
storage [5]. Researchers [9-13] proposed a list number
designs for solar power refrigerator and conducted
experiments measuring the temperatures at different
locations of the refrigerator, theoretical and actual co-
efficient of performance (COP) of the refrigeration unit
to optimize the performance of the system. Daffallah et.
al. [14] experimentally investigated the performance of
a PV refrigerator with and without load under different
operating conditions. Authors performed a comprehensive
investigation showing the effects of variation of thermostat

*
Corresponding author’s email: anowar96me@gmail.com

DUET Journal 57 Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2019

 Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy based Portable Micro-Cold Storage
position on the performance of refrigerator and found that
the setting of thermostat plays a vital role on the power
consumption of the refrigerator. Ameen [15] evaluates
and describes the development of a solar-powered freezer
for remote areas focusing on the storage of medicine and
vaccines at a temperature of -10ºC with a storage capacity
of 9.1kg. Ewert and Bergeon [16] designed a solar powered
refrigeration system merging a vapor compression
refrigeration (VCR) unit and a special controlling system
to get the optimized performance. The refrigeration system
has several parts of component working together. Above
all, refrigerant circulates through an insulated chamber,
which acts as a thermal reservoir containing phase change
material (PCM), to extract the heat from it. When the heat
is extracted this PCM gets charged (solidified), and later
when the sunlight is not available, it can work as a hit
sink and maintain the specified temperature inside the
insulated enclosure.
Another technology to utilize solar energy for cooling
is solar absorption refrigeration system [17-26], where
DC compressor is replaced by a generator. Here, solar
collector is usually used as generator that heats mixture of
refrigerant and absorbent to form a vapor-liquid mixture.
A storage project by Freni et. al. [27] proposed the design
of adsorption cooling system for cold-storage applications
using the solar energy as primary source of energy.
They chose the pairs of activated carbon (absorbent)-
ethanol (refrigerant) and activated carbon (absorbent)-
methanol (refrigerant) as the absorbent. The prototype
(storing capacity up to 1.7 MJ) operates with a 24-hours
intermittent cycle and consists of a solar collector, an
air-cooled condenser, and an evaporator. The developed
solar-powered vapor absorption refrigeration (VAR)
system successfully replaced methanol, which is toxic
and corrosive, by less severe ethanol. In addition, they
proposed a second-generation prototype which would be
able reduce the size of the system by 30% for the same
capacity and increase the performance by 20%.
To select the refrigeration system for a solar powered
cold storage unit, researchers [28-30] have conducted
comparative studies, both experimentally and
numerically, between VCR and VAR considering the
economic factors, payback period, energy efficiency,
design complexities, and so on. In a comparison, Ammari
and Ata [30] showed that despite having a slightly larger
payback period, VCR system outweighed VAR system
due to its less initial cost with a simpler design and lower
maintenance, less bulkiness, components are easily
available in the market, and a better lifespan. Above all,
based on the projects described above and by doing the
comparative study, we have developed our system on the
basis of VCR technology, which is more convenient to
provide viable solution for storing the cold energy in rural
areas of our country.
DUET Journal
A 2012 study found the daily solar hours in Bangladesh
to range from 10 to 7 hours as shown in Fig. 1. So, this
abundant solar energy has a large potential to be used in
various sectors in Bangladesh reducing the traditional
fossil fuel-based power consumption and ensuring a green
environment for the future generation [31].
Preserving sea foods as early as they are caught is one of
the major concerns of the fishermen in a tropical country
like Bangladesh. Especially, it appears as a hurdle when
they are in the deep-sea for a couple of weeks but they
need to preserve the fish to ensure its quality. Most of the
cases, fishermen keep ice with them to do so. However, this
technology is not a primitive one but it costs a huge amount
of energy loss. Salting, another ancient food preservation
technology, is also being used. However, this technique, in
case of fish preservation in deep sea, becomes not feasible
and it tends to decease the food quality rapidly. Therefore,
freezing is the most advantageous solution in terms of
food preservation. Concerning that issue, Chowdhury [32]
designed and developed a solar diesel-based hybrid mini
cold storage which can preserve fish or meat for 1-2 weeks
maintaining a subzero temperature in the cooling chamber.
The Government of Indonesia carried out a project [33] to
catalyze the financing of solar powered fish cold-storage
and ice-making installations for eco-fishing-ports in
Indonesia. The 20 m3 unit was designed to keep 500 kg of
fish at -20 °C, with the capacity of adding and cooling 200
kg of ‘un-iced’ fish per day. It is energized by a 6.4 kWh
solar array through a 3-phase inverter system, backed up
by a relatively small 10 kWh battery bank. Worldfish [34]
and West ‘Are’Are Rokotanikeni Association (WARA)
[35] started a partnership project called cold fish storage
where they developed solar powered freezer to store fish
and perishable goods in the off-grid regions of Solomon
Island [36]. They conducted experiments to assess
economical advantage of these small freezers compared
to costly centralized fisheries centers. A thermal energy
storage technology allows the compressor package to do
6
5
Daily solar radiation
4
3
2
1
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
(Months)
Fig. 1: Daily solar radiation (hours) in Bangladesh over
the year [1]
58 Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2019
 Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy based Portable Micro-Cold Storage

most of its ‘cooling work’ during the day, when the solar
power is available, saving a substantially larger quantity of
battery storage that would otherwise be required [37]. Our
climatic conditions and the geographical position are very
favorable for solar power. So, it is essential to develop a
cold storage in an agricultural and developing country like
Bangladesh which can be driven by solar energy.
The purpose of the current work is to design, developed
and deployed as a stand-alone, off-grid, 100 percent solar-
powered cold storage facilities that uses ultra-efficient
compressor packages in combination with battery back-
up system. The system operates without external power
source and thus has almost zero energy costs. To evaluate
the performance of both the solar PV system and the
cold storage, a list number of influential parameters
like power generation and consumption at different
weather conditions, charging and discharging of battery,
temperature at different locations of cooling space with and
without load are measured and investigated extensively.

2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

A schematic diagram and the photographic views of the

solar-powered micro cold storage experimental setup Fig. 2 (a): Schematic diagram of solar-powered micro
which consists of a 270L deep freezer, two solar modules, cold storage
a charge controller, a sine waves solar inverter, and two
solar batteries are illustrated in Fig. 2. The system is made
portable by setting four rollers under the basement frame.
A steel structure has been designed to carry total load of Solar
Panel
the components of the system. The solar panel structure is
built in a way that the angle of solar panel can be varied
to get the maximum irradiation. Nazmul [38] conducted
an experimental study to find the range of angle of solar
panel that allows a solar PV system can get maximum Controller
solar irradiation over the year around Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Based on that studies, the range of inclination is set from
Battery
21º to 30º, which can be obtained by adjusting the height
of front side arm of the steel structure.
Four K-type thermocouples and pressure transducer I
Roller
are placed at the inlet and outlet of compressor and
evaporator of VCR to measure the temperature and Bolt Joint
pressure, respectively of the refrigerant at these points
and hence to calculate the COP of the system. A digital
multi-meter with temperature sensor has been used to
measure the temperature inside the freezer. A clamp
meter has been used to measure the compressor current. Cold
Two ammeters have been series with the solar panel and Chamber

battery connection which shows their current. Two digital

multi-meters are used to measure the voltage of the solar
panel and battery respectively. Two solar panels (Brand:
Motech) of rated power 320 Watt with an open circuit II

voltage of 41 volts are installed in this project. The project Fig. 2 (b): Photograph of (I) front view and (II) rear view
is designed as a 24-volts system. Consequently, when of the setup.

DUET Journal 59 Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2019

 Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy based Portable Micro-Cold Storage

load is applied to the panel then voltage drop to 37 to 24

volts two panels.
To maintain a constant supply voltage, the panels are
connected in parallel because the voltage but the current
is same in parallel connection. A charge controller (Power
Com Luminex TM Max Series Solar Charge Controller;
Model: PCM-SCC 30; Capacity 12/24V, 30A) is used to
control charge level of storage battery and supply power
to the load simultaneously. A detail specification of the
micro cold storage chamber (freezer) and the solar PV
panel is given in Table I.

Fig. 3 (a): Schematic of the thermocouple setup in the

2.1 Thermocouple setup in cold storage chamber freezer.
To evaluate the overall performance of the system, it is
obvious to measure the temperature of different locations
inside the cooling zone during both the solar hours and the
back-up time. Concerning that issue, the entire the cooling
space is divided into two different imaginary planes which
are parallel to side walls of the storage chamber and
placed at the middle of two parallel side walls. To capture
the temperature variation along the height of the storage,
5 equally spaced, which is 15 cm, k-type thermocouples
are set along the vertical direction as shown in Fig. 3 Fig. 3 (b): Photographic of the thermocouple setup and
(a). Likewise, 5 similar thermocouples are placed at 20 data logger interfacing.
cm apart from each other along the 90 cm length of the
storage. Along the direction of width, the temperature
deviation captured by placing 3 k-type thermocouples at temperatures at a 30-seconds interval over the period.
a distance of 20 cm. The thermocouples are numbered The schematic diagram, as well as the photographic
from 1 to 11 and placed at pre-defined positions inside views, of the thermocouple positioning in the freezer
the cooling chamber. They are interfaced with a data are shown in the Fig. 3. The uncertainty of temperature
acquisition system (data Taker DT85M) to record the measurement because of positioning error is found ± 1°C
approximately. Adding this value with a statistical error
of ± 0.5°C obtained from a set of experimental test runs
Table I: Specification of solar panel and freezer for each position, the overall approximation of uncertainty
Solar Panel specification is estimated as ± 1.5°C. Finally, a thermocouple, named
as thermocouple 12, is positioned to measure the ambient
Passivated Emitter and temperature throughout the whole cycle.
Cell technology
Rear Cell (PERC)
Module Size [L×W×H] (mm3) 1950×992×45
Maximum power (W) 315 3. DESIGN CALCULATION
Maximum voltage (V) 33.55
The chest freezer is used as micro cold storage which
Maximum current (A) 9.39
works based on VCR cycle. The performance parameters
Open circuit voltage (V) 39.33 of a VCR unit, which are refrigeration effect, compressor
Rated current (A) 9.56 work, and COP, were calculated by p-h diagram shown
Freezer specification in Fig. 4.

Total capacity (L) 270 The theoretical COP of the refrigeration cycle can be
Chamber Size [L×W×H] (mm ) 3
1950×992×45
estimated using Eqn. (1).
h − h4
Rated voltage (V) 12/24 DC COPcooling = 1 (1)
h2 − h1
Rated input current (A) 1.7
Total input power (W) 170 Where (h1 – h4) and (h2 – h1) are the refrigeration effect
Refrigerant R-134a and compressor work, respectively.

DUET Journal 60 Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2019

 Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy based Portable Micro-Cold Storage
Fig. 4: Pressure-Enthalpy (p-h) diagram of the VCR
cycle used in micro cold storage. R-134a is used as the
refrigerant.
From the p-h diagram as shown in Fig. 3, the values of
enthalpy at locations 1, 2, and 4 are found as 252 kJ/kg,
292 kJ/kg, and 104 kJ/kg, respectively. The COP for the
system is calculated experimentally as 3.70.
(2)
Therefore, the required input power is 446 W. The
approximate power consumption of the compressor
considering 08 (eight) working hours per day is given the
Eqn. (3).
Power consumption / day = Input power × working hours (3)
= 446 (W)× 8 (hrs)
= 3568 Watt-hours
According to the mean available solar hours over the year
in Bangladesh [1], we assumed 07 (seven) sunshine hours
per day to design our solar cold storage system.
The daily average load that must be fulfilled by the solar
system is given by Eqn. (4).
Power consumption (Watt − hrs ) (4)
Average load (W ) =
Average solar hours
3568
= ≅ 510W
7 in Fig. 5.
To meet the demand, a PV solar system of capacity 520 W
is required. Besides, the compressor requires a 1.2 to 1.5
times higher current than the rated one during its starting.
That is why the total capacity of the PV system should be
DUET Journal
high enough so that it can meet the demand. Although a
wide variety of sizes of solar PV panel is available which
have a capacity less than 1 kW, we focused to select the
solar panel which would be able to meet the demand with
a minimum number of panels. Concerning the aforesaid
issue, solar panel with a capacity of 320 W is found most
feasible.
(5)
Therefore, we need 2 panels at 320 W each.
Power output from the solar panel is proportional to the
intensity of solar irradiation [39, 40]. When intensity
of light become less then output power from the panel
become less. The relation can be expressed as
Power output α Intensity of solar irradiation (6)
To evaluate the performance, the system was installed on
the rooftop (Altitude = 12.5 m) of old academic building
at DUET (Longitude = 90°25′E, Latitude = 24°02′N). The
average daily solar irradiation of the location is 4.65 kWh/
m2 [41]. The data recording was started from 14:30 of 08
March 2018 to 12:30 of 10 March 2018. The power output
obtained from the PV panels varied over the range of time,
and a maximum output power of 457.46 W was measured
at 13:00 of March 09 2018. Therefore, the maximum solar
efficiency can be estimated using the Eqn. (7).
(7)
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The performance of the solar powered micro cold storage
system is investigated at three (03) different operating
conditions: (I) without load (II) with a load of 2 litter of
water (III) with a load of 10 litter of water.
4.1 Variation of temperature of the freezer with time
Temperatures at different locations in the cooling space of
the cold storage at various loading conditions are shown
The compressor of the freezer was started at 12:00 of 8
March 2018 with no load condition at a mean ambient
temperature of 21.5 °C. The fall of temperatures at
different locations of the cooling space with respect
61 Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2019
 Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy based Portable Micro-Cold Storage

to time is depicted by the Fig. 5 (a). The figure

30 Loading condition: no load demonstrates that the temperatures of all the positions
25 Average ambient temperature: 21.5οC followed a similar trend and experienced a sharp
Date: 08 March 2018
20 decrease with time. At the starting time, the temperature
Thermocouple 6
Thermocouple 7 inside the freezer was recorded 27 °C and at the end of
Temperature [oC]

15

10
Thermocouple 8 a 4-hour investigation, the lowest temperature, which
Thermocouple 9 is -17.25 °C, was recorded at the position 5 of Fig. 3
5 Thermocouple 10
Thermocouple 11 (a). Meanwhile, the average temperature of the freezer
0
Thermocouple 1 unit was found -14.13 °C. Like case I, the freezer
-5 Thermocouple 2 loaded with 2 litters of water (Fig. 5 (b)) maintained a
Thermocouple 3
-10 Thermocouple 4 similar profile of temperature declination and reached a
-15 Thermocouple 5 mean temperature of -11.5 °C at the end of a 4.5-hour
-20
observation. Unlike case I and II, the temperatures at
12:20 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 various points of the freezer in the third case, however,
Time [hr of day] illustrated a considerably different pattern. In case III,
although temperatures tumbled for the first 03 hours of
(a)
the 8-hour operation, Fig. 5 (c) shows that the rate of
30 Loading condition: 2 litter of water
decline of temperature significantly dropped as the time
Average ambient temperature: 21.3οC increased. To explain the situation, there are two reasons
25
Date: 09 March 2018 to cite. Firstly, the ambient temperature, which was 24
20
Thermocouple 6 °C, contributed a higher transmission heat gain for the
Thermocouple 7 cold storage. Secondly, as the amount of load becomes
Temperature [oC]

15
Thermocouple 8 higher, the product load results more heat and hence
10 Thermocouple 9
5 Thermocouple 10 the cooling load becomes higher. Fig. 6 compares the
Thermocouple 11 variation of ambient temperature for a running time of
0
Thermocouple 1 225 minutes for case I, case II, and case III. In addition, it
-5 Thermocouple 2 delineates the falling trends of the mean value of freezer
Thermocouple 3
-10 Thermocouple 4 temperature for the aforesaid three operating conditions.
-15 Thermocouple 5

-20 4.2 Analysis of power generation by solar PV panel

10:20 10:50 11:20 11:50 12:20 12:50 1:20 1:50 2:20
Time [hr of day]
Fig. 7 shows the variation of current, voltage, and
(b) temperature of the PV panel with time. The observation
started at 9:00 when the temperature of the PV panel was
30
Loading condition: 10 litter of water lowest (36.6 °C).
25 Average ambient temperature: 24οC
Date: 10 March 2018 The figure also illustrated that the voltage was remained
20 Thermocouple 1
Thermocouple 2
Temperature [oC]

Starting time
Thermocouple 3 30 Case I:12:00, Case II:10:00, Case III: 9:00
15 Thermocouple 4
Thermocouple 5
10
Thermocouple 6 20
Thermocouple 7
Thermocouple 8
Temperature [oC]

5 Thermocouple 9 10

0
0
Freezer temperature without load
-5 Ambient temperature without load
9:40 10:40 11:40 12:40 13:40 14:40 15:40 16:40 17:40 Freezer temperature with 2 litter water
-10
Ambient temperature 2 litter water
Time [hr of day] Freezer temperature 10 litter water
Ambient temperature 10 litter water
(c) -20
-25 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225
Fig. 5: Temperature variation of the cooling chamber Time [min]
with time when the cold storage is running (a) without Fig. 6: Comparison of the ambient temperature and fall
load (b) with 2 litter of water (c) with 10 litter of water. of overall temperature inside the freezer with at three
different cases.

DUET Journal 62 Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2019

 Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy based Portable Micro-Cold Storage

50 4.3 Performance of battery during charging and

discharging
Current [Amp] / Voltage [Volt] / Temperature [ C]
o

40
30
20
10
0
9:00
Fig. 7: Current, voltage, and temperature of solar PV
panel as a function of time.
nearly unchanged over the period of time, which ensured
the fulfillment of the operating voltage requirement as
discussed in section 3. The PV current demonstrated a
proportional relationship with the temperature of the PV
panel. Resultantly, the current reached to a maximum
value of 17.80 A at 13:00 hours when a highest PV panel
temperature of 49 °C was also recorded. The minimum
value of PV current, which was 5.7 A, was found at
17:00 hours.
PV Temperature
To provide back-up during the night time or the day time
PV Current with no solar irradiation, two lead acid batteries (12 V
PV Voltage each) are used. As the system voltage is 24 V, the batteries
are connected with each other in a series connection.
The charging and discharging parameters (current and
voltage) of the batteries are measured the to evaluate
the performance of the batteries. These parameters are
illustrated in the Fig. 8 as a function of time over the
charging and discharging. The compressor current is
also measured during this time, and a comparison is
represented in the same figure in between the compressor
current and battery current. Above all, the variation
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 of mean temperature inside the freezer with no load
Time [hr of day] during the charging and discharging of the battery is
depicted in the Fig. 8 which affirms whether the battery
back-up system is adequate to meet the cooling demand
of the system. Charging of the batteries was started at
9:00 hours when the temperature inside the freezer was
nearly 23 °C. The charging current at that time was 9.5 A
approximately, however, as the compressor takes a higher
current for starting which is almost 1.2 to 1.5 times of
the rated current, we needed to wait to see a rise in the
charging current of the battery for a safe starting of the
refrigeration system. Fig. 8 shows that the starting time
of the compressor was 14:30 hours when the temperature
of the cooling compartment was almost 28 °C. The
temperature inside the freezer plummeted as the system
started running, and the temperature dropped to nearly 0
°C at 17:00 hours when the charging period of the battery

20 28
Charging Discharging
30 18
Battery current
16
Battery voltage
Compressor current 14 26
20
Freezer temperature
12
Current (Amp)

Voltage (Volt)
Temperature [oC]

10
10 24
8

6
0
4
22
2

-10 0

-2 20
10:00 12:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 24:00
Time [hr of day]
Fig. 8: Performance assessment of the battery back-up system showing the variation of current and voltage during
charging and discharging, compressor current and the freezer temperature.

DUET Journal 63 Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2019

 Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy based Portable Micro-Cold Storage

ended. To observe the back-up performance of battery, 20

the temperature of the freezer compartment was recorded, 28 Voltage 18
and this 5-hour investigation showed that it consistently Current
24 16
reduced the temperature but at a lower rate compared
to that of day time. At the end of time, the temperature 14
20
inside the chamber was found nearly -8 °C. On the other 12

hand, the figure depicts that the compressor current was
lower than the discharging current of the batteries which
confirmed the safe operation of the compressor during the
back-up time.
4.4 Power fluctuation assessment during sunny and
cloudy condition
Variation of panel voltage and output current for sunny and
cloudy conditions are shown in Fig. 9 (a) and Fig. 9 (b),
respectively. It is seen from these figures that from 9:00
am to 1:00 pm the output current increased and after that
progressively decreased to zero due to lack of sunshine. It
is seen from the figure that maximum voltage 24.80 V was
found at day time 14.00 and current is maximum 17.80 A
at 13.00. Sun light intensity was much higher at that point
of time. The black line shows the variation of voltage with
time, and it was remained constant up to 5:00 pm and after
that decreased. It is seen from Fig. 9 (b) that at 12:30 pm
the current sharply decreased because of cloudy condition
but the voltage remained constant. Current shown in the
graph at time 10:00 am and 12:30 pm became lowest.
At the end of the day when sunlight totally absent then
current of the system become zero but some voltage is
available which is not useful. Similar results were found
for load tests as well.
4.5 Comparison with previous studies
Similar experimental work has been done by Iqbal et al.
[2] by considering a chest freezer as cold storage which
is operated by solar energy and battery with different
28
24
20
Voltage ( Volt )
Current ( Amp )
Voltage ( Volt )
16 10
8
12
6
8 4
2
4
0
0 -2
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Time [hr of day]
Fig. 9 (b): Variation of voltage and current with time for
cloudy condition.
load conditions. In this work, temperature variations for
different load conditions found similar nature of results.
Also, in the present research, the cold storage developed
as user-friendly by making it portable.
5. CONCLUSION
A solar energy based micro cold storage backed-up with
battery is designed and fabricated which would be a
viable solution to reduce both wastage and deterioration
of sea food items during storage and transportation in
deep sea areas. Studies were conducted to evaluate the
performance of solar PV system, refrigeration system,
and battery back-up system, respectively. Experiments
were conducted in two three different loading
conditions: (I) without load (II) with 2 litters water (III)
with 10 litters water. It has been found that the system
reduced the temperature of the compartment from 28 °C
20 to -14.5 °C in a 4-hour operation for case I. Satisfactory
Voltage
Current 18 results were also found for the case II and case III,
16 respectively. In terms of back-up energy system, the
14 charging and discharging of battery was investigated,
12 and the system was run without connection with the PV
Current ( Amp )

10 panel (battery only) and found a smooth operation for

16
8
nearly 36 hours.
12
6
8 4
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
2
4
0 The current work is financially supported by University
0 -2 Grants Commission under the project titled “Design and
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Time [hr of day] development of a solar energy based micro cold storage”.
Fig. 9 (a): Variation of voltage and current with time The authors of the article wish to acknowledge and thank
without cloudy condition. all the people involved with this project.

DUET Journal 64 Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2019

 Development and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Energy based Portable Micro-Cold Storage
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