Computational tool for the analysis and simulation of cold room performance in perishable products industry

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, R.
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Nunes, José, Silva, Pedro Dinho da, Gaspar, Pedro Dinis, Andrade, Luís P.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/7327
• topic: Cold room performance - Perishable products

Perishable products such as meat, fruit and dairy products are some of the major food products preferred by consumers due to their nutritional and organoleptic characteristics. The conservation of their properties through time is usually ensured by storing them in rooms with controlled air temperature and humidity. The refrigeration systems that accomplish these environmental conditions are the main responsible by the electrical energy consumption in food sector industries. With the aim to promote an improvement of its energy performance, a computational tool for the analysis and simulation of cold rooms performance was developed. It allows the analysis of the behaviour of relevant parameters, such as: raw material quantity, cold rooms volume, refrigeration systems power, among others. The preliminary results of the practical application of this tool show its usefulness on the decision making for energy efficiency measures to reduce the specific energy consumption in perishable products industry.