Performance characterization of a small milk cooling system with ice storage for PV applications

Publication Type
Journal contribution (peer reviewed)
Authors
Torres-Toledo, Victor; Meissner, Klaus; Coronas, Alberto; Müller, Joachim
Year of publication
2015
Published in
International Journal of Refrigeration
Band/Volume
60/
DOI
10.1016/j.Jrefrig.2015.06.025
Page (from - to)
81-91
Keywords
ice storage, Milchqualität, milk, milk cooling, performance model, photovoltaic application
Abstract

The presented work proposes a calculation method to estimate the transient performance of a small on-farm milk cooling system for PV applications. The system employs 3 kg ice for fast cooling of 17 L milk in conventional 20-L-milk-cans. Two units of a commercial DC refrigerator operate at -10°C and at 4°C for ice production and milk preservation respectively. The development of milk temperature and energy consumption during a cooling event was studied experimentally at different ambient temperatures of 20°C, 30°C and 40°C. A computational model was developed and validated where thermal resistances and COP were adjusted with experimental data. The results between 20°C and 40°C ambient temperature show a COP reduction of around 30% and a total daily energy consumption increase of around 100%. The specific total energy consumption of the system per litre milk was between 30 Wh/L and 58 Wh/L for the studied ambient temperature range. The suggested model can be used for the optimization of photovoltaic stand-alone systems at specific locations.

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