FEATURE
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Functional effectiveness and energy efficiency:
ripening to perfection!
By: Paz García of Ziehl-Abegg
N
on-climacteric fruits can only
ripen fully when remaining
attached to the parent plant;
by contrast, climacteric fruits such as
banana, avocado, kiwi, papaya, pears,
etc. keep on maturing once harvested,
which provides good opportunities and
benefits on a trading level.
Greater access to fruits not produced
locally is now feasible thanks to the
development of transport and modern
ripening facilities. However, this
democratisation of the consumption
should come about through quality
product; homogeneous airflow distribution
is the actual key for a successful process.
While other determining factors as
temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide
or even ethylene are normally well
known and managed nowadays, air
circulation is too often a pending subject
in professional chambers around the
world: pending from both performance
and efficiency points of view. Hot areas,
insufficient aeration and finally lack of
maturation uniformity come along with
energy-intensive facilities frequently
demanding unreasonable service levels.
Reversible airstream is one of the
preferred solutions to achieve equivalent
distribution through the boxes from both
sides. Unfortunately, it goes together
with very low system efficiencies and the
inconvenience of motor and brackets in
the way, which prevents these fans from
providing real equivalent airflows on both
spinning directions; weight could be a
handicap also, both for the chamber’s
structure and for the maintenance
operations.
Nevertheless, even based on
reversible impellers, there is great room
for efficiency improvements in the
other main components of a ventilation
system; the optimisation of motors (EC
technology), supports and housing
aerodynamics can reduce energy
consumption and weight by 30% in most
of the current ripening fans worldwide.
Tens of billions of kWh are spent
globally on ripening chambers every
year, mostly on air movement and
climate control, not always getting the
expected results. Functional effectiveness
and energy efficiency entail the dual
objective of future ventilation in fruit
ripening chambers, avoiding ambient
stratification and implementing
integrated low-maintenance smart
systems integrated in the room
aerodynamics as a whole.
All this can only be possible through
a consistent and accurate supervision
and operation system that leverages
the optimised performance of structure
plus equipment, enabling rather
than just controlling. The ripening
management must harmonise climate
parameters, sensors, ventilation systems
and channels, with air movement
and speed working together. Wireless
technology already provides the
opportunity to collect and handle all
the potent data from expertise on the
ground to manoeuvre on-time today
and learn for tomorrow, empowering the
advancement in the future.
Intelligent motors and fans, smart
sensors, interconnection of networks,
internet of things, clouds, predictive
analytics, machine learning, artificial
intelligence … the future is already
knocking at the door!
The main question of ripening is ignoring
what happens to the fruit before it arrives
in the chamber. What if we knew? What
when we actually know? Luck will not
be part of the equation anymore; those
ripening chambers capable of integrating
data from all along the supply chain,
analyse and predict properly in the
market context to take co-ordinated,
Ripening is a must when it comes to commercial climacteric fruits, although what is behind the good
practice of professional ripening? How can quality products be guaranteed? Is there a key determining
factor for uniform batches of perfectly ripe fruit?
Top: Greater access to
fruits not produced locally
is now feasible thanks
to the development of
transport and modern
ripening facilities.
Left: The optimisation of
motors (EC technology),
supports and housing
aerodynamics can reduce
energy consumption and
weight by 30% in most of
the current ripening fans
worldwide.
timely and decisive actions and learn for
the future, will succeed.
And this business model will radically
change into higher operational efficiency
(automation, remote monitoring and
control, better workforce productivity and
satisfaction, optimising decision-making, no
routine tasks, qualification) and enhanced
COLD LINK AFRICA • July/August 2019
customer experience (accessible,
transparent data and communication,
integration of the physical and digital for
tailored communication and devoted
service); getting the work well done,
ripening to perfection!
Will we be prepared for this
scenario? CLA
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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