[Gasification] Absorption chiller for fruit

[Rex Zietsman]

Tom,

While we have not gone down the absorption chiller route, we have done the
work on something similar. In Mozambique, the bulk of fishing is done
artisanally. Unsold fish are dried resulting in a much reduced value. What
we have proposed on the village scale is a 20kW gasifier/generator that will
produce about 3 tpd flake ice during 12 daylight hours per day while also
charging some batteries. The ice flaker is a standard electrical chilling
unit. We proposed two cold rooms, one for ice and one for fish. The chiller
on the fish cold room has a much smaller power requirement, of the order of
1.5kW. The intention is that this will run off batteries and an inverter
during the night. As the unit will be closed and the door not opened during
the night, the amount of running time will be reduced to meet losses ex
walls/floor/roof/door. Hence batteries and inverter being appropriate. The
fishermen fill cold boxes with the flake ice and set off. As they bring fish
aboard, they gut and clean and place the fish on the ice. A refrigerated
truck makes a regular (1x to 2x per week depending on volume) run to collect
the fish. Total costs at site: about $50k including the cold rooms,
gasifier/generator, ice maker, batteries, inverter, etc.

If your fruit can handle water, one method that is used with carrots is
hydrocooling with chilled water at 2oC. Circulating cold water is sprayed
onto the fruit as it travels through the spray on mesh belt. This rapidly
cools the fruit and allows it to go directly to storage at 5oC. In storage
you can use an absorption chiller for the refrigeration. Note: absorption
chillers can only supply a cold water source at 5oC. The other way to do
rapid cooling is with blast freezers which are a whole new ball game - high
power running for a portion of the day vs lower power over a longer period.

Hope this helps

Rex Zietsman



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