Abstract
This experimental study analyzed the use of solar photovoltaic energy for operating a novel twin-circuit DC milk chiller without batteries using water-based cold thermal energy storage for different seasons in Chennai, India. HFC-134a and HC-600a were used as refrigerants in the two individual circuits. For each season, the test was conducted continuously for 18 days to analyze the quantity of generated ice that could be utilized to chill 10 L of milk in the morning and in the evening. The average quantity of ice formed per day in the ice bank during monsoon, winter, and summer seasons was found to be 3.61, 19.75, and 27.97 kg, respectively. Thus, it is evident that the use of solar energy with thermal energy storage is effective for operating the milk chilling unit for two seasons, namely winter and summer. However, the system requires an additional power source for continuous operation during the monsoon season. It is noteworthy to mention that the use of a solar milk chiller instead of a conventional milk chiller resulted in 91.15% lesser CO2 emission with 27.6% less LCC. In this study, solar photovoltaic power was observed to be a good choice for chilling milk in the context of global warming and energy consumption. The use of thermal energy storage also allows the initial cost to be reduced.
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Data availability
The datasets used and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- m ̇:
-
Mass flow rate (kg s-1)
- AC:
-
Alternating Current
- CE:
-
Cost of electricity
- CO2-eq:
-
Carbon dioxide equivalent
- COP:
-
Coefficient of Performance
- DC:
-
Direct Current
- Eannual :
-
Annual electricity consumption (kWh)
- EC:
-
Penalty cost for releasing of CO2
- evap:
-
Evaporator
- GHGs:
-
Green House Gases
- h:
-
Specific enthalpy (kJ Kg-1)
- HC:
-
Hydrocarbon
- HFC:
-
Hydrofluorocarbon
- I:
-
Current
- IBT:
-
Ice Bank Tank
- IC:
-
Investment Cost
- OTyear :
-
Operating hours per year
- Lannual :
-
Annual leakage rate of refrigerant (%)
- LCC:
-
Life Cycle Cost
- n:
-
System life time (years)
- PCM:
-
Phase Change Material
- PUF:
-
Polyurethane Form
- PV:
-
Photo Voltaic
- Q:
-
Heat Transfer (kW)
- r:
-
Refrigerant
- R:
-
Refrigerant charge (g)
- rpm:
-
Rotations per minute
- RTD:
-
Resistance Temperature Detector
- TES:
-
Thermal Energy Storage
- TEWI:
-
Total Equivalent Warming Impact
- V:
-
Voltage
- VCR:
-
Vapor Compression Refrigeration
- Wele :
-
Electrical power used by the compressor (kW)
- WFan :
-
Electrical power used by the condenser fan (kW)
- Wp :
-
Peak Wattage
- α:
-
Rate of refrigerant recovery (%)
- β:
-
Factor of CO2 emission
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the following:
• UGC-MANF (F1-17.1/2016-17/MANF-2015-17-TAM- 51497) India for the financial support.
• DST-SERB (EMR/2016/00159) for the financial support in developing the experimental setup.
• DST-FIST for the financial support in developing the psychrometric facility.
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Conceptualization DM. Lal; Methodology, S. Sidney and R. Prabakaran; Formal analysis, S. Sidney, R. Prabakaran and SC. Kim; writing—original draft preparation, S. Sidney; writing—review and editing, R. Prabakaran, SC. Kim and DM. Lal; Supervision, DM Lal.
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Shaji Sidney, Rajendran Prabakaran, and Sung Chul Kim contributed equally to this work
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Sidney, S., Prabakaran, R., Kim, S.C. et al. A novel solar-powered milk cooling refrigeration unit with cold thermal energy storage for rural application. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 16346–16370 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16852-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16852-5