Absorption Refrigeration for Sustainable Food Security in Remote Areas of Nigeria

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Absorption Refrigeration for Sustainable Food
Security in Remote Areas of Nigeria

• Stephen C. Nwanyaa Rodolfo Taccani Mauro Reini
• Department of Mechanical Engineering,
  University of Trieste, Italy.
• Via Valerio 10,
  Trieste 34127.
• Corresponding author.Tel[phone] Fax
  23442770644 a Department of Mechanical
  Engineering, University of Nigeria Nsukka,
  Nigeria. E-mail address snwanya_at_yahoo.com

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1. Introduction

• Ensuring food security without constraints on
  electricity supply is a top global priority
  commitment due to increasing inequality in the
  food supply demand matrix and impact of climate
  change on food production.
• Food and energy are related. Therefore, energy
  poverty is close-linked to food insecurity and
  spread of preventable diseases.

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1. Introduction Contd.

• The energy linkage to food security is most
  essential to food processing, which include-
  refrigeration, freezing, pasteurization,
  sterilization, fermentation and drying leading
  longer shelf life at desirable safety and
  quality.
• According to Obamiro et al 2005, food security
  consists of three pillars namely food
  availability, accessibility and nutritional
  factors.

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Typical perishable products from remote areas
Fresh tomato fruits in wooden baskets and sealed
with paper as traditional transit preservation
method
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Garden egg Fruits
vegetable
cabbage
meat
potato
carrot
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1. Introduction contd.

• For lack of inactivation system, as shown in
  figures above, before consumption, 25 - 30 by
  volume of these produce is damaged on transit
  from rural areas to distant urban cities.
• Applying cold preservation option would
  substantially reduce bacterial growth and,
  therefore, reduces both food losses and food
  poisoning.
• To reduce the post harvest losses, cold
  preservation stimulus policy with absorption
  refrigeration or chilling technology is a
  necessity in Nigeria.

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The specific objective of study

• To enhance the safety, quality and economics of
  vegetables and fruits by control of their
  temperature.
• Develop a configuration for chilling and
  simulating effect of temperature on fruits and
  vegetables.

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Methodology

• The energy balance analysis based on first law of
  thermodynamics is employed to obtain information
  about heat transfer characteristics of common
  vegetables and fruits at the refrigeration
  conditions.

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Scope of study

• This study is limited to absorption refrigeration
  or chilling of vegetables and fruits.
• They are the most risk-sensitive and vulnerable
  to enzyme activity, human pathogen, and
  susceptible to both rapid aging and short span of
  life.

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2. Evaluation of the absorption refrigeration
cycle
Simple micro-gas turbine for waste heat source to
power absorption chiller
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Simplified schematic of the Absorption
Refrigeration Cycle
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3. Results

• In the schematic absorption cycle model, the
  chilled product temperature was varied against
  product cooling load.
• The result showed that at 7 0C of chilled
  temperature 628.4 kW of energy was extracted from
  the commodity.
• In tomatoes, lower temperature range prevents
  bacterial growth and preserves quality
  characteristics.

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3. Results contd.
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Results Contd.
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4. Conclusion

• strong market opportunities exist for absorption
  refrigeration in Nigerias food security drive.
• The necessity is greatest when access to grid
  connected electricity is either unavailable or
  unreliable.
• This paper recommends cold preservation stimulus
  policy which ensures that raw and perishable
  agro-products are minimally refrigerated on
  transit or before consumption.
• Above recommendation, if implemented, will ensure
  - food security reward farmers effectiveness
  and promote rational resource utilization.

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• Thank You.