A

PROJECT TALK ON
STUDY AND OPERATION OF MICRO COLD
STORAGE

SUBMITTED BY GUIDED BY
GROUP NUMBER 6 SACHINDRA ROUT
INTRODUCTION:
• Cold chain involves control of temperature, humidity,
air composition, packaging etc.
• The cold chain helps to connect farmers with markets,
which is key to overall growth of horticulture sector
• Total number of cold storages in India : 6,100
• Total number of functional cold storages in India : 5,400
• Crop wastage in India results in an annual loss valued at
92,651 crore INR(15B USD) as of 2014.
OBJECTIVES:
• Postharvest losses in fruits and vegetables : 25-30%
(worth approximately Rs 5000 crores annually) due to
lack of post-harvest technology and non-existence of
integrated transport, storage and marketing facilities.
• Only 10-11 % of the fruits and vegetables are stored in
cold storage.
• It is essential to reduce respiration in order to maintain a
high quality.Therefore, they should be stored soon after
the harvest.
LITRATURE REVIEW:
Case Study:
1. The cold storage was formulated and prepared in association with
Coolcorp. Coolcorp prepared a cold storage with an aim to help the
farmers of a small village to get the proper price for its products.

2. According to our observation their setup was able to accommodate

500Kgs of vegetables at a particular time. The control setup included a
relay circuit and microcontroller. Insulation walls were made of
polyurethane material.

LIMITATIONS:
1.ABSENCE OF HUMIDIFIER AND DEHUMIDIFIER.

2.ABSENCE OF AUTOMATED CONTROL SYTEM.

SYSTEM INSTALLED AT BANKI BY
COOLCORP
Year Author Publication Results
By using coolcrop Control Unit the cold
Toward Reducing Crop Spoilage and storage is able to run on solar energy
2017 Kendall Nowocin Increasing Small Farmer Profits in providing higher shelf life than the
India: a Simultaneous Hardware and
conventional cold stores.
Software Solution

successful operation even at 40%

of solar irradiance has revealed that the
proposed system is undoubtedly
Muralidhar acceptable for air cooling and is the
Design and control of standalone
efficient air cooling system.
solar photovoltaic power air cooling
Mahankali
system
2017

With more intensive cooling at higher

airflow rates, this cooling period down
to the same outlet temperature is less
than two hours. For small spaces the
cooling load is lower and thus the
Cold Storage with Phase Change
Material for Building Ventilation airflow rate is small. However, for larger
2016 Vincenc Butala
spaces the cooling load should be
higher at higher airflow rates.
HEAT LOAD CALCULATION:
WORKING MODEL:
COMPONENTS:
ITEM SPECIFICATION
Refrigerator HR-62HP
Atomizer 24V,1.6MHz
Peltier module 12V,10A (-30oCto 45oC)

Arduino Mega 2560

Relay module 30A

Relay driver IRF 540N

Thermocouple module LEONE(L91CSDC12V)

Humidity sensor DHT11

Blower fan 12V,2A

SMPS 24V,20A
 HUMIDIFICATION:
• Atomizer create fog. A piezoelectric transducer (resonating frequency
1.6MHz) produces high-energy vibrations which causes the water to
turn into fog.
• High pressure compression waves are created on the water surface,
causing vapor molecules to be released into air.
• Water particles in the fog are of size less than 5 microns. This fog can
penetrate to the tiniest of spaces, thus eliminating chances of any
free water
• A built-in sensor detects the presence of water and activates the
transducer plate.
• The transducer vibrates causing the water to turn into droplets,
which vaporize to turn into fog particles
ATOMIZER
DEHUMIDIFICATION:
CONTROL UNITS:

ArduinoTM Mega 2560

Control Relay Unit

Relay Driver
MOSFET Connection
SENSORS:

Basic structure of capacitive type

humidity

DHT11 capacitive humidity sensor

 OBSERVATION:
Ideal Humidity Ideal Observed
Sl.No
Vegetables Temperature temperature observed humidity shelflife
Recorded (inoC) (In %) (In %) (In days)
(in oC)

1 Cabbage 2.1 0~2.5 91 90~95 30-35

2 Pear 2.4 0~2.5 85 85~90 8~9

3 Apple 1.5 -1~4 98 90~95 30~40

4 Potato 1.7 0~2.5 79 80~90 23~25

5 Tomato 6.3 4.5~10 86 85~90 6~7

FUTURE WORK:
• Solar energy can be used as a power source for the cold storage.
• It can be used in biomedical sector to store pathogens.
• Provisions can be made to control the cold storage unit wireless
Lesly and remotely.

CONCLUSION:
• The calculation with all assumptions were done and result
was obtained.
• We found the heat load for storing Broccoli at a desired
temperature
• The solar panels were calculated to produce the required
power.
 REFERENCES
• ↑ IBEF (2014) Indian Food Industry. [Online] Available
from: http://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-food-industry.aspx [accessed: 5th August 2014]
• ↑ CIA Factbook (2014) India.[Online] Available
from:https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html[accessed
12th August 2014]
• ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Worldbank (2011) Case study: Waste to Wealth by Incubating Mini Cold
Storage Technology Ventures in India [Online] Available
from: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTARD/Resources/335807-
1338987609349/IndiaCaseStudy.pdf[accessed: 17th August 2014]
• ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 TechSci Research (2013, February 6th) Global Cold Chain Logistics Market.
[Powerpoint Slides]. Presented at the National Cold Chain Summit in Hyderabad. Available
from: http://www.assocham.org/events/recent/showevent.php?id=822
• ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kader, A.A. (2005) Increasing Food Availability by Reducing Postharvest Losses of
Fresh Produce. In: Mencarelli, F. and Tonutti, P. (eds.). International Postharvest Symposium,
Verona, Italy
• ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Emerson Climate Technologies (2013) The Food Wastage and Cold Storage
Infrastructure Relationship in India. [Online] Available
from: http://www.emerson.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/India%20Cold%20Storage%20Rep
ort%202013/Report_layout_Reduced.pdf