COMPARATIVE STUDY AND OPTIMISED DESIGN OF TRUCK FOR REFRIGERATED TRANSPORT OF GRAPES IN INDIA

Abstract

Grape is a nourishing fruit. Biggest producers of grape in India are. the States of Maharashtra,. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It is only recently that grape growers have formed larger cooperatives and are in search of better means of transport of grapes to the faraway markets. Losses occur due to spoilage during transportation which is on account of the temperature rise. Therefore the need of the industry is a suitable transport system employing refrigera-tion to keep the spoilage to a minimum level. This is the problem which was stated to the author, by the scientists of Post-Harvest Technology for Fruits and Vegetable Section, Central Food and Technological Research Institute, Mysore. The process of selecting and designing a suitable refrigerated transport system for grapes in India has inclu-ded the literature review and an extensive market survey. Based on this computer programmes have been developed to compute the total cooling loads and the optimal insulation thicknesses for various systems of refrigeration which can be adopted. These systems are namely, water ice system, liquid-N2 system, dry ice system and the mechanical refrigera-tion unit system. Along with the advantages and disadvantages of these systems, a financial comparison has also been made. The comparison indicates that all of them are profitable . w when compared to the present mode of transport of grapes (i.e. without refrigeration) .However dry ice system is the most econo-- mical One', in the present day market conditions, and has been recommeded by the author.