Improving energy efficiency within the food cold （提高能源效率在冷的食物）.pdfVIP

Improving energy efficiency within the food cold-chain Stephen J James, Christian James Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre (FRPERC), The Grimsby Institute of Further Higher Education (GIFHE), HSI Building, Origin Way, Europarc, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, DN37 9TZ, UK (jamess@grimsby.ac.uk) ABSTRACT In June 2006, a UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (defra) funded project to “identify, develop and stimulate the development and application of more energy efficient refrigeration technologies and business practices for use throughout the food chain whilst not compromising food safety and quality” started. The project was a collaboration between 4 top University research groups, an industrial steering group and hundreds of stakeholders from the food and refrigeration industries. This paper brings together the final findings of this project. The complete output of the project can be found on http://www.grimsby.ac.uk/What-We-Offer/DEFRA-Energy/. Keywords: Cold-chain; Freezing; Chilling; Energy; Refrigeration loads INTRODUCTION Worldwide it is estimated that 40% of all foods require refrigeration, and that 15% of the electricity consumed throughout the world is used for refrigeration [1]. With the rising concern over climate change, global warming and the recent sharp increases in energy costs there is increasing pressure to make significant reductions in carbon emissions and energy use. However, in reality less than 10% of such perishable foodstuffs are in fact currently refrigerated [2]. Coulomb [2] estimated that post-harvest losses currently account for 30% of total produc