CO 2 Employment as Refrigerant Fluid with a Low Environmental Impact. Experimental Tests on Arugula and Design Criteria for a Test Bench

Biagio Bianchi, Giuseppe Cavone, Gianpaolo Cice, Antonia Tamborrino, Marialuisa Amodio, Imperatrice Capotorto and Pasquale Catalano
Additional contact information
Biagio Bianchi: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy
Giuseppe Cavone: Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic of Bari, Via E. Orabona, 4, 70126 Bari, Italy
Gianpaolo Cice: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy
Antonia Tamborrino: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy
Marialuisa Amodio: Department of Science of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Foggia, Via–Napoli, 25, 71122 Foggia, Italy
Imperatrice Capotorto: Department of Science of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Foggia, Via–Napoli, 25, 71122 Foggia, Italy
Pasquale Catalano: Department of Agriculture, Environment and Food, University of Molise, Via Francesco De Sanctis, 1, 86100 Campobasso, Italy

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: In order to define design criteria for CO 2 refrigeration systems to be used for agricultural products and foodstuff storage, a variable geometrical system was realized, with the goal of meeting a wide range of environmental and process conditions, such as producing low environmental impact and maintaining the highest Coefficient of Performance (COP), at the same time. This test-bench, at semi-industrial scale, was designed as a result of experimental tests carried out on Arugula. The storage tests showed that all samples stored in cold rooms with R.H. control showed a slight increase of weight but also small rot zones in all the boxes due to an excessive accumulation of water condensation; thus, the system may not have achieved conditions that RH requires in a given range, without reaching saturation condition. At the same time, the use of CO 2 must be adequately tested along its thermodynamic cycle, during steady state and/or transient conditions, imposing variable working conditions that can simulate plant starting phase or some striking conservation process, like those that characterize sausages. The designed plant will allow studying these specific performances and evaluate COP variation, according to environmental and plant operating conditions.

Keywords: refrigeration; natural fluids; arugula; CO 2 plant applications; variable geometry plant (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/4/3734/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/4/3734/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:4:p:3734-3752:d:47476

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().