Phase change material for the thermal protection of ice cream during storage and transportation (original) (raw)

Phase Change Materials in Food Packaging: A Review

Springer, 2024

Phase change materials (PCMs) are a class of thermoresponsive or thermoregulative materials that can be utilized to reduce temperature fluctuations and provide cutting-edge thermal storage. PCMs are commercially used in a variety of important applications, such as buildings, thermal engineering systems, food packaging, and transportation. The potential of these materials for an efficient temperature buffering effect is relevant in food packaging applications to preserve the safety and quality of packaged food products during storage and transit. These latent heat materials might be integrated into active and smart food packaging. Multifunctional microencapsulated PCMs can be employed to increase the efficacy of active food packaging. Additionally, PCMs can improve energy management in cold chains and lessen temperature abuse of foods. The current review focuses on the available methods for producing covers and packaging that contain PCMs, such as form-stable packaging, flexible covers and packaging films, paperboard boxes, wood, and jute, to reduce losses during the post-harvest of agricultural products and the storage and transportation of packaged food products.

Heat transfer modelling of encapsulated phase change materials for food packaging

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2014

Temperature abuses in cold chain can lead to deterioration in food quality and safety. Packaging can play an active role in temperature controlling of perishable products. However, standard materials for product packaging (plastic, cardboard or wood) usually have limited thermal buffering capacity. One possible approach to enhance this capacity and maintain the product at a desired temperature is thermal energy storage by phase change materials-PCM. In the present work, the heat transfer behaviour of a plate made from encapsulated PCM (Rubitherm RT5 encapsulated in polycaprolactone PCL) was studied. The enthalpy method was chosen to model the phase transition of the PCM. The model was validated by experimental cooling and heating processes, under controlled air temperature conditions. The numerical result demonstrated a better thermal capacitance of the encapsulated PCM material compared to a standard one (cardboard).

Effect of Packaging Materials on Temperature Fluctuations in Frozen Foods: Mathematical Model and Experimental Studies

Journal of Food Science, 1986

ABSTRACTAn analytical solution of the conduction heat transfer equation was developed for prediction of temperature in frozen foods exposed to periodic environmental temperature fluctuations. The prediction model includes the effect of surface heat transfer resistances. Theoretical predictions were compared with experimental values recorded from frozen ice cream at different storage regimes. Slab‐shaped metal containers were used in the experiment. Surface heat transfer resistances were simulated with single layers of commercial packaging cardboard sheets and restricted air movement over the containers. A satisfactory agreement was obtained between predicted values and experimental data. Packaging materials coupled with a layer of stagnant air are effective barriers against thermal fluctuations.

Improving thermal performance of freezers using phase change materials

International Journal of Refrigeration, 2012

Food transport and storage at low temperatures is a matter worldwide due to changes of the dietary habits and the increasing of the population. The issue of improving food storage applies at different applications such as commercial freezers or refrigerated trucks. The aim of this work is to improve the thermal performance of commercial freezers using phase change materials (PCMs) under door openings and electrical power failure. A commercial PCM was selected (Climsel-18) with a melting temperature of À18 C, which is contained in 10 mm thick stainless steel panels placed at different locations in the freezer. During 3 h of electrical power failure, the use of PCM maintained the freezer temperature 4e6 C lower and that of the frozen products remains at acceptable levels for much longer time. With frequent door openings the benefit of the PCM is evident when the temperature of the cabinet is near the melting temperature of the PCM.

Evaluation on performance of cold storage box enveloped with phase change materials

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2019

Retailing temperature-sensitive-products such as sausages, milk, fishes, poultry, etc. requires extra energy for cooling. It is necessary to develop an-energy-efficient-design of cold storage box to preserve these products during transportation and retailing. This research aims to study the heat flow, temperature distribution and temperature changes within a 5 litter cold box featured by phase change material (PCM). The study begins with design and fabrication of cold box followed by testing and evaluation using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. As energy storage, there are four models of 300 ml plastic-bottle filled with PCM i.e (i) plain bottles without holes and grooves, (ii) bottles with one hole, (iii) two-holes bottles with curvatures, and (iv) bottles with four holes without curvatures. There are two type of PCM was prepared to observe the temperature changes in the box, 100 % H2O and 10 vol.% NaCl in H2O. Experimental results show that adding 10 vol.% of NaCl en...

Comparative study on phase changing material for refrigeration effect for milk chilling

Agricultural Engineering International Cigr Journal, 2014

In developed countries the milking collection is done to process in various diary plants situated far away from production areas. There is a problem of cool chain management, which, generally is absent at farm levels. To manage the cool chain in milk transportation system right from farm level it is required that some locally available techniques/materials should be selected and used for milk chilling. The objective of current study is to ascertain mechanism for chilling of milk at farm immediately after milking. The experiments were conducted and the cooling performance was evaluated by noting down the drop in temperature with respect to time using mercury thermometer. The respective regression equation and R 2 value were obtained for every run of the experiment. It was observed that the relation between temperature drop and time was significant for coolant to product ratio of 1:3 & 1:2 under insulated condition (p<0.05). The study showed that the cooling of milk can effectively be done by immersing the ice packs in milk by using ice to product ratio in range from 1:3 to 1:2 under insulated condition within the recommended time as per standards.

Experimental Study on Effect of PCM Material used in Chocolate Freezer

— There are large numbers of phase change materials that melt and solidify at a wide range of temperatures. Our study on the chocolate freezer in which we build a storage system which store the energy and provide it at the time of power failure because at the time of power failure in the chocolate freezer chocolate is melt or dissolve and their taste is change. Ice packs or cooling pack are used as a PCM material in chocolate freezer to build a thermal energy storage system. They provide latent heat energy for 4-5 hr. at 20⁰C. So that the main aim of this experimental study to choice such a PCM material which provide 4-5 hr. storage capacity and inner side temperature of system maintain 20°C. Keywords— Chocolate Freezer, renewable energy sources, PCM material.

State/Phase Transitions, Ice Recrystallization, and Quality Changes in Frozen Foods Subjected to Temperature Fluctuations

Food Engineering Reviews, 2020

Market demand for affordable frozen foods has grown due to changes in consumer lifestyle. The quality of frozen food must be maintained throughout production, storage, transport, and distribution. Recent developments in the science and technology of food freezing have led to improvements in the quality of frozen foods. Examples include the control of ice nucleation (by antifreeze proteins and ice nucleation agents) and advances in freezing technologies (such as electric and magnetic freezing). Progress in the technology of frozen food distribution systems (such as use of time-temperature indicators) has enabled the delivery of high-quality, high-value, and safe frozen foods to consumers. However, unavoidable temperature fluctuations occur during the handling of frozen food. State and phase transitions in frozen food lead to ice recrystallization and quality changes, requiring optimized management strategies such as packaging-based and location-based approaches. Therefore, an understanding of ice recrystallization in frozen food, especially the physical and chemical properties of food matrices, is important. In this review, we evaluate the impact of temperature fluctuation and ice recrystallization on the quality of frozen food, based on characteristic thermal transitions.

A review on effect of phase change material encapsulation on the thermal performance of a system

Renewable and Sustainable Energy …, 2012

This paper presents a detailed review of effect of phase change material (PCM) encapsulation on the performance of a thermal energy storage system (TESS). The key encapsulation parameters, namely, encapsulation size, shell thickness, shell material and encapsulation geometry have been investigated thoroughly. It was observed that the core-to-coating ratio plays an important role in deciding the thermal and structural stability of the encapsulated PCM. An increased core-to-coating ratio results in a weak encapsulation, whereas, the amount of PCM and hence the heat storage capacity decreases with a decreased core-to-coating ratio. Thermal conductivity of shell material found to have a significant influence on the heat exchange between the PCM and heat transfer fluid (HTF). This paper also reviews the solidification and melting characteristics of the PCM and the effect of various encapsulation parameters on the phase change behavior. It was observed that a higher thermal conductivity of shell material, a lower shell size and high temperature of HTF results in rapid melting of the encapsulated PCM. Conduction and natural convection found to be dominant during solidification and melt processes, respectively. A significant enhancement in heat transfer was observed with microencapsulated phase change slurry (MPCS) due to direct surface contact between the encapsulated PCM and the HTF. It was reported that the pressure drop and viscosity increases substantially with increase in volumetric concentration of the microcapsules.