PROJECT
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Train transporting bananas from agent
area to ripening rooms.
room temperature value is fed into the
proportional-integral-derivative (PID)
algorithms to regulate the temperature
to control precisely within a 0.2°C band
of the set point. Once the produce is on
temperature, the ripening cycle begins
and the ethylene gas is introduced and
regulated using Pulse Width Modulation
(PWM) duty control through PID (to
prevent overmixing the air with too
much ethylene).
Up to four ripening profiles can be
selected and completely configured by
the end user depending on the grade
of produce and time required to ripen
the bananas. Once the ripening cycle is
complete, the room can automatically
change state into a regular cold room
with defrost functionality, etc. if the end
user chooses to do so. Once the room is
emptied and switched off, the cycle is
reset and the room can be reloaded.
Pump station foreground, Aermec chiller background.
Loni Nicolopulos (left) and Kevin Walter of Lutz Refrigeration.
Ethylene gas bottles (5% ethylene, 95% nitrogen).
Product spike to measure banana core temperature.
COLD LINK AFRICA • June 2019
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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